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What was made first the color orange or the fruit orange
Latest comment: 17 days ago10 comments9 people in discussion
Because what is there a fruit named the wild bear orange or was orange invented because the human species language today also known as English that’s that’s an only or mainly in the USA ~2026-38361-32 (talk) 01:25, 6 July 2026 (UTC)
Reading those two articles made me wonder, since "orange" originated from French, if the French word has any French rhyming word, unlike in English. ~Anachronist (who / me) (talk) 05:47, 9 July 2026 (UTC)
Any made-up word can rhyme with any other word, so that doesn't count. The pair of English words "more range" rhymes with orange, but not any single word in English. ~Anachronist (who / me) (talk) 21:40, 15 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 17 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
A template was used for a series of British cities (about 50 articles). What mechanism does WP have to address this type of correction as a group rather than each article in the citations? Specifically it addresses "NOMIS (Office for National Statisitcs" but a search on the string "National Statisitcs" will bring up the articles affected.~2026-32542-29 (talk) 06:38, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 17 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
"Many Wikipedia articles on convergent evolution describe lookalike species as 'completely unrelated.' For example, the Cook's swift article states it is 'completely unrelated' to house martins, and the Mole article says golden moles are 'completely unrelated to true moles'. Given that all these animals are placental mammals or birds that share a common evolutionary ancestor, isn't using the word 'unrelated' scientifically inaccurate and misleading? Why does Wikipedia allow this phrasing instead of using terms like 'distantly related' or 'homoplasy'?" ~2026-38730-08 (talk) 07:10, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 17 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hello, my article Didier Dietschi was recently published after a long rewrite process. However, maintenance tags placed back in November 2025 by a user who is now blocked are still on the page, even though the issues have been resolved. Could someone please review the article and help remove the outdated tags? Thanks! Cristina CristinaG22 (talk) 06:30, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 17 days ago5 comments3 people in discussion
I need help on making a page redirection to the Mitchell Beazley article because it's okay too and it's more formal name that is beneficial to link to the Mitchell Beazley article, I also need it to finish another different article that I'm currently making. ZachScientia (talk) 20:06, 13 July 2026 (UTC)
There is a wikipedia page that helps with making redirects. Wikipedia:Redirect_maker. Simply put in the name of what you're redirecting from into the text box on the page, and then in the [[ ]] put in Mitchell Beazley. ಢೠೊೠಃಈ (talk) 20:13, 13 July 2026 (UTC)
I used it, it didn't work, I checked if I'm going anything wrong, I seems I didn't, I'm still confused if I have done something or some things wrong, and I missed something. ZachScientia (talk) 05:43, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
Request: non-admin help with backlog at Wikipedia:Closure requests
Latest comment: 16 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
At Wikipedia:Closure requests#Other types of closing requests multiple requests have been open for over 100 days, and one request has been open for 264 days. These can be closed by any experienced editor. Could someone please lend a hand?
Drafting articles at enwp in a different language; is this permitted?
Latest comment: 16 days ago6 comments4 people in discussion
While having a browse through here, I have come across a user who is drafting an article here at enwp, but not in English. The user, DarioFFP, is drafting an article on the site in Spanish. The user has contested an attempted deletion on the draft's talk page, stating that he's drafting the article here first, and then intends to translate it into English.
With the greatest of respect to him, surely he should be drafting the article on the Spanish Wikipedia, for publication there first, and then translating it to English, presuming that the subject of the work passes GNG. Any ideas on what should be happening with this?
I don't know what the policy is, but I would suggest that user space would be better than draft space. Also references formatted for en Wikipedia would be preferable. TSventon (talk) 16:39, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
I've just checked through the policy on drafts, and it can't be deleted, because from what I understand, drafts aren't subject to the normal policy for CSD, so "not in English" is out. I don't know how to request a draft to be moved to user space, but I agree that this might be the best option while the user is working on it. Dane|Geld16:52, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Creating an article for en.Wikipedia first might actually be shrewd. It's generally considered that en.Wikipedia has the most stringent standards for referencing, etc., so anything accepted as an article here is likely to face few if any hurdles when translated for another Wikipedia, whereas something first accepted elsewhere might encounter further difficulties here. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-36805-68 (talk) 22:11, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
editor threatening me and then saying that i should leave them alone?
Latest comment: 16 days ago5 comments3 people in discussion
hi! in an ANI thread, the user kaspar-trout said hereyou used an inappropriate language towards me, multiple times, and now you are clearly harassing me for no reason. I'll give you another shot before reporting. Bye and before that wroteMeanwhile someone could teach the user with a serial number as a name how to engage with people in a constructive and civilized way, because nobody is exempt from a block.. i replied to them saying that they're sending a second threat after the first one
The person you're talking about has put themselves into big trouble by what they've done, and they know that this is a bad situation. They're trying to fight their way out of it. Don't risk getting yourself into trouble over an adversary who is already defeating themselves so badly anyway; all you need to do is be quiet and let them keep digging. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 00:34, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
At this stage of the conversation, the user was being relatively polite (regardless of whether the LLM usage). I think a less aggressive tone at this stage could have kept the conversation on the rails. abandeali (talk) 00:56, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
yeah, i was pretty angry at them and i would've benefitted from stepping back and disengaging for a few hours before replying ~2026-38678-64 (talk) 01:16, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Bulk link edit across multiple pages
Latest comment: 16 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi there,
Every one of the subpages found on this article reference a link to an app that has since been superseded. Is there anyway someone can bulk update all of these links? I have a feeling they will appear in more than just these pages too. List of statistical areas in New Zealand~2026-40810-66 (talk) 02:19, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 16 days ago17 comments10 people in discussion
Hi,
How wary should one be if, say, a digital marketing agency promises an attorney that they can promise/guarantee that they will get them a standalone page? How likely is that agency scamming and/or using black hat methods to secure a page on Wikipedia? Could you share how a black hat method could guarantee a page for someone? How strict are Wikipedia's guidelines when approving a page submitted under "notable person" and how susceptible to those black hat methods are they? Any insight into how credible a "promise to get a Wikipedia page" is? Thanks so much. Itsmeblondie90 (talk) 07:52, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Itsmeblondie90 You should be extremely wary. No one can make you any promises related to Wikipedia. Please read the scam warning carefully.
Note that Wikipedia's Terms of Use requires the disclosure of paid editing; anyone coming up with some excuse to not do this is trying to scam you. Never give anyone money to edit Wikipedia for you. 331dot (talk) 07:55, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
What 331dot says. But aside from that, you ask Could you share how a black hat method could guarantee a page for someone? This question surprises me. Would you ask a restaurateur "Could you share how a 'dine-and-dash' couple could enjoy a slap-up dinner at your place, not pay, and be guaranteed to elude video cameras, security staff, and the police?"? -- Hoary (talk)WWU👍︎08:13, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
That is exactly how it sounds, doesn't it? That's a hilariously apt observation. I guess I'm trying to get an idea of how it could slip through the cracks. I want to be able to know if someone's strategy involves scummy, sneaky tactics if they pitch it to someone who wouldn't know any better. Itsmeblondie90 (talk) 09:12, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Some people actually could promise you an article will be created if they break the rules. However, the article would probably be crap, be deleted within a day, and leave a deletion log which makes it harder to get an article later. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:41, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
@Itsmeblondie90 Since it hasn't been said already, please forward any such offers you may have received to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org so they can be dealt with appropriately. These people are two-bit scammers banking on the fact laypeople have no idea how the Wikipedia article creation process works. Athanelar (talk) 07:17, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Articles created like this invariably stink like a three day old fish, due to the use of puffery, spin and LLM (among others). See also WP:BOSS. Nobody should create an article that they are involved with, as it won't last very long when experienced Wikipedians read it.--♦IanMacM♦(talk to me)11:58, 21 July 2026 (UTC).
@Itsmeblondie90: Someone can guarantee an article about you by making you genuinely notable, with multiple stories about you in major mainstream news outlets. This happens e.g. to murder victims and kidnap victims if the crime is hideous enough. -Arch dude (talk) 13:26, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
What do you consider "heinous enough?" Rather, what does Wikipedia consider "heinous enough?" Again, I've read the guidelines, I just want a fuller picture, if that makes sense. Itsmeblondie90 (talk) 13:31, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
It's not a question of what Wikipedia considers 'heinous enough', it's what the newspapers (etc.) consider 'heinous enough' to prompt them to publish stories about it. Anything (or -body) that gets multiple independent pieces written about it (them) in Reliable sources likely meets the criteria (see WP:Golden rule) for having an article about it/them.
Latest comment: 16 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
I took out "Alive" from the death-date field of the infox (since there was no reliable source confirming he's 831 or 832 years old), but I got an error message for an "invalid year". What gives? Clarityfiend (talk) Clarityfiend (talk) 13:53, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Also, please make sure to add correspondingly the year he was born in the article's lede and body, alongside it's citation and source. ⠀⠀ .n14:45, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Coming of Age (2008 TV series)
Latest comment: 16 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 16 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
I would like to reproduce a picture of the V2500 engine which appears in the Wikipedia article relating to this engine. How do I get copyright permission for use in a book about to be published by Cambridge University Press called Jet Propulsion? ~2026-40866-83 (talk) 13:50, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Most of the material in Wikipedia (including many images) may be freely reused as long as you comply with the licence, which is mostly about giving attribution.
Unfortunately, some images are non-free, in which case you will need to contact the copyright owner.
You need to look at the image page to see which applies to that particular image.
Latest comment: 16 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi - I have a conflict of interest as I work at a company that is on Wikipedia, but I know the information is out of date and should be updated. How can I provide those edits? ~2026-41181-55 (talk) 17:41, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Wikipedia as a sources for songs and artists mentioned
Latest comment: 15 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I am doing research to write a Wikipedia page about Stephanie Spruill, an American singer, songwriter, well known session singer, vocal contractor and vocal coach who was the vocal trainer for the cast of the recent billion-dollar biopic MICHAEL. In addition to articles from publications like VARIETY, the Hollywood Reporter, digital publications and newspapers, can I use Wikipedia page links as well for songs by The Jacksons, or other famous people she has worked with, such as The Jackson, Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5? Linwoods96 (talk) 19:40, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
The main thing you'll need is articles that are really about Stephanie Spruill, in the reporter's words and not Spruill's words. (This means not about projects she's been involved with, not about people she's worked with, and not including her answers to questions.) There's an exception to that: if there's a big article about one of those topics, but it includes a section dedicated to Spruill that's several paragraphs long, that section may count. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 20:14, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
The answer to your main question is: you can't use Wikipedia as a reference, but you can look in those other articles to see where they got their sources, in case you can use the same source material yourself. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 20:17, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Sunflower / sunflowers
Latest comment: 15 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
I think it's already good. The plural one redirects to the article on all of them (which includes the singular one). But it's certainly not the only way it could have been done. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 21:21, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
@~2026-40500-17: To show the main menu, click the hamburger icon (three lines) on the top left and click “move to sidebar”. To show the tools menu, click the three dots on the top right and click “move to sidebar”. To show the appearance menu, click the glasses icon on the top right and click “move to sidebar”. If you are on mobile, there is no sidebar.
How do you remove {{Information}} and replace with another template on an image that was uwploaded through the Upload Wizard?
Latest comment: 15 days ago5 comments3 people in discussion
I have been uploading tropical cyclone tracks lately and I found out that {{Information}} is ruining the supposed format on the file page. Let's (draw)!🖊 13:14, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 15 days ago5 comments2 people in discussion
I asked another editor:
"This is the second time that I have asked you stop pinging me. Please stop this behavior now."
(Yes, I know I can block the pings in preferences, but I don't want to block all notifications from them.)
They replied
"When I use the reply function, with the visual editor, sometimes it includes you whether I like it or not. That's the behavior of these imperfect systems, not me. Do with that what you will."
if referring to this anew thread, then no, the problem seems to be in the comments. if one has been poorly formatted above (for instance, the one your comment was a reply to seems to be missing its signature due to the attempt at indenting within that same comment), then all of its content will be treated as a single comment made by whoever happens to put a signature under it first
...that said, the visual editor doesn't force pings or anything of the sort (you may notice that this comment doesn't contain one), and there don't seem to be any gadgets that would force pings within replies like that, so for the other comment, it definitely seems to me like they put it there manually, deliberately or by accident consarn(talk beige)(count ribs)19:47, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
This post claims "The Wikipedia mobile app (at least on Android) does that. It adds a ping by default when replying but isn't forced and can be removed simply by backspacing..."
Thinking about it, if an editor is using a mobile app that adds pings and for some reason can't use the backspace key, they would have pings on every comment. If its just on one, it is on purpose. --Guy Macon (talk) 06:51, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
i doubt even that. for starters, the mobile app (at least on android) doesn't even have a reply button with which to automatically add a ping, and certain visual editor tools (like writing an @ automatically bringing up a list of names in a discussion to convert into a ping when clicked) are unavailable entirely, so it would make no sense for that to happen
maybe a little obviously, this means this reply had to be edited manually. and maybe a little less obviously, i doubt they're even in the app, judging by the lack of app tags on their contribs consarn(talk beige)(count ribs)11:17, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
on niche-ish quotation cases
Latest comment: 15 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
just three of them
if an interview, article, or some other such publication is condensed for another format (for example, a video recapped for text format), should the one with more words be cited overall, or just for claims exclusive to it?
if any such publication has certain words censored, the cowards, should they just be unceremoniously uncensored for wikipedia use?
If words are uncensored in one source but censored in the other, just use the uncensored one - unless the censorship is part of the point. If no uncensored reliable source exists, you have to quote the censored version as-is.
For your other question - which version(s) of the same basic material to use - as long as both are equally solidly reliable sources, then I don't think it should really matter. If everything you need appears in just one of those overlapping sources, I don't think you need to mention the other sources unless there's an obvious good reason to. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 20:46, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
for the first case, that means i unfortunately have to censor the shit word இ௰இ
for the second case, that just means citing a youtube video as opposed to its slightly edited and heavily compressed text equivalent
Latest comment: 15 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
There are a bunch of bold red error messages in the references section of Link-N, but I can't seem to find the errors that are causing them. Can someone else have a look? Marbletan (talk) 14:37, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
<ref="Noorwali_2018"> should be <refname="Noorwali_2018"> etc.
Eyby.com, note that TSventon fixed it in the article, not by modifying the file in commons. This is ideal. The commons image is still the same full size and is available for others to use at that size (and thank you for the image!), while the article uses the appropriate smaller size. If you create images in the future, please use the largest reasonable size for the file itself, so the article editor can chooses the proper size for the article. -Arch dude (talk) 14:51, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
Another Account
Latest comment: 15 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi admins. I'd like to know if I can set up another account on the domain, basically to wipe my history clean or leave it in the past. I was involved in some articles I'd rather not have been, and I want to create a more solid account dedicated to the area I actually enjoy writing and interacting in. I spoke about it over on wikipt, and they said it was absolutely fine. Am I alright to create a new account here and just edit normally? Cheers. 𒁂 C H A O S࿐16:51, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
You would need to name the article so that we know what it is. It would not be practical for Tom Cruise to veto having a Wikipedia article, because he easily meets the General notability guideline. However, if you are less famous, you could request deletion, particularly if the article was thinly sourced. ♦IanMacM♦(talk to me)17:25, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
@Star walker: If you know how to run a JavaScript command in your browser (maybe using something called the console) then run this while here at en.wikipedia.org:
Latest comment: 14 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
In the article Standard Marathon in references: "tandard Chartered Marathon Singapore: 29-year-old man dies after collapsing during..."; cannot locate original placement to change.~2026-32542-29 (talk) 00:24, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 14 days ago7 comments5 people in discussion
I tried to download a great article about ship colors, but the only thing that wouldn't print was the color samples. Why?
I wanted a pdf of an article titled 'World War II ship camouflage measures of the United States Navy', which of couese includes color samples. The article printed fine, except for all the color samples, which are empty (white). Is there a workaround for this? Threedeewiz (talk) 02:48, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Looking at the source of World War II ship camouflage measures of the United States Navy, the colour samples aren't images, they are hexadecimal RGB values in tables. That may be the issue, though I'm not sure what the fix is. If you don't get an answer here, try asking at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. Bear in mind though that accurate colour reproduction will depend in part on the abilities of your printer and/or your computer screen: don't expect colours to necessarily look the same on different media. AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:04, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
Interesting. I tried downloading the article as a PDF, and then viewing the resulting PDF on screen. Whether I did so using Firefox, Chromium, Document Viewer (Evince), or qpdfview (all on the same computer), the photographs appeared as they should, but the color (as well as the not-colored) samples were white/blank. My computer isn't connected to a printer, but I imagine that for me (i) the color samples wouldn't print, and (ii) this would have nothing to do with the printer or printer driver. -- Hoary (talk)WWU👍︎06:36, 21 July 2026 (UTC)
The colors in the article are set as table cell background colors, but Wikipedia style sheet overwrites them with white backgrounds when printed:
THANK YOU!!! This makes the article truly useful as a guide in a complicated subject. Yes, colors are a tricky thing to deal with in computers and printing, but a guide like this is a real aid in pointing ome in the right direction. Well dome. Threedeewiz (talk) 08:52, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
How to compliment an article's author?
Latest comment: 14 days ago4 comments4 people in discussion
Some articles are so good that I want to post a brief compliment to the author and/or editors. Should I simply add that to the article's Talk page? Or is there a better way? Mermaid Smiled (talk) 20:26, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
I don't know if I'm alone in my dislike of barnstars, but you can always just post a pic of a barn on their talk page instead - this is one of my favourites (top),
I think this section is not very clear on the exact steps needed to prevent removal. I would like to take over the Gigazine article that is currently due to be removed. Where must I go to "achieve consensus for its inclusion"? TPI81AF (talk) 20:52, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
@TPI81AF I think that the simplest thing to do is to WP:Draftify the article (i.e. move it to draft space) and then, with no time pressure, you can re-write it by checking the existing sources and/or finding new ones. Remove the WP:PROD template once in draft. If you want expert eyes on your re-write, use the WP:Articles for creation process, which just means placing the correct template at the top of the draft and submitting it when it's ready. Mike Turnbull (talk) 10:54, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Jon Rappoport
Latest comment: 14 days ago6 comments5 people in discussion
Jon Rappoport has passed away on July 8th and Wikipedia has not updated this information. Also, the listing for him has misspelled his name. It's Rapp'o'port, not Rapp'a'port! I know it's a biased rag of a site, but usually they can record a death and spell a name correctly. ~2026-41292-41 (talk) 16:49, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
OP, we do not have any article on Jon Rappoport, as the red link above indicates, so there is nowhere appropriate for Wikipedia to record his death.
Why do we not have one? Probably because either no-one has ever volunteered to create one, or someone looked into doing so but did not find sufficient material in Reliable sources to pass our Notability threshold. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 21:44, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
There are loads of Google hits showing that Jon Rappoport [sic] died on July 8th. The OP may have seen a Google knowledge panel and assumed that there was a Wikipedia article. All we have is a Wikidata item, not yet updated with the DOD. Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:22, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Referencing errors
Latest comment: 14 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I'm getting an error: inv_local_long when I try to use a reference from enwiki on cywiki, which normally works. I can't see anything wrong with the citation but I don't know where to look for the list of technical error messages. Deb (talk) 05:06, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 14 days ago4 comments4 people in discussion
i, I'm looking to create a Wikipedia page for a music producer and media executive who has worked under two different professional names throughout his career. I'd like to know what sources and coverage are required for the page to be approved and remain up long term. I'd also like to understand how Wikipedia handles someone who has been known by two different names — would both names appear on one page? Thank you. ~2026-41278-79 (talk) 17:39, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft. If you don't follow this advice but try to create an article without this preparation, you are likely to have a frustrating and disappointing experience with Wikipedia.
Some further responses:
Most people on the planet are not notable in Wikipedia's sense, and no article can be written about them. The first thing to do when planning to write an article about somebody is to look for independent reliable sources about them - see WP:42; because if you can't find many such sources, there is probably no point in spending any more time on it.
Music producers are one of the classes of people who are often not notable in this sense, because as workers 'behind the scenes', they tend not to get written about that much. You may strike lucky with this one, of course.
While we informally talk about "X's article", I strongly advise you to banish the idea of "a page for X" from your thinking. What you are proposing is "an encyclopaedia article about" the person - it will not be "for" them (or against them" - it should be a neutral summary of what people have published about them, good and bad).
If this is a person you know, you need to be aware of Wikipedia's policies on editing with a conflict of interest. If you are in any way employed by or on behalf of this person, you will be regarded as a paid editor, and must comply with the conditions. If that is the case, please read WP:BOSS.
If the person is yourself, please be aware that writing about yourself on Wikipedia is so monumentally difficult that very few people have ever managed to do it successfully, and you are strongly advised not to try. See autobiography.
Maplink template error that affects every single page using it
Latest comment: 14 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
On the Maplink template page, which hasn't been edited since May 2018, there are multiple errors displayed on top of the page saying something like "mapframe: Title "[BLANK]" is not a valid map data page" in red text, which is funny because said .map links do exist and are fully accessible. This doesn't just happen on there, every article that use the maplink template has this error displayed instead, making it quite a significant issue. Quake1234 (talk) 14:18, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 14 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I noticed that when I view an article I have an edit link in a box wrapped around the categories. That edit goes into vedit. Is there any way to change that to edit rather than vedit or to completely remove it. (I use hotcat also). Right now in general I show both edit and vedit buttons for each of the sections.Naraht (talk) 12:38, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
@Naraht: It cannot be changed to a source edit. It can be hidden with this in your CSS:
Latest comment: 14 days ago7 comments5 people in discussion
Hi Wiki team,
A colleague of mine, Lawrence Baxter, a scholar, was recently the victim of a Wikipedia scam. He had paid the supposed writer, and this person published the page for a while, then oops, it went down, so we figured it out. He is trying to resolve the issue with his bank and CC today. Anyway, It's very unfortunate because he deserved that page! Is there a way to salvage his page and rewrite it with proper links and info? he has a notable background. I have his link below:
Deserving, unfortunately, isn't part of the picture on Wikipedia. I don't think I ever saw the page in question, but I seriously wonder how valuable the scam page could have been - and therefore why anybody would hope to retrieve it. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 21:02, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
I mean that waiting for an honest person who has no business or personal connection with Lawrence Baxter to start an article from scratch later on is probably better. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 21:08, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Kvankramer, you say that the article Lawrence Baxter had been paid for. It was created by "Indiclock". So we infer that "Indiclock" did it for payment. Wikipedia requires that people paid to edit (i) declare this, and (ii) do not create articles but instead create and submit drafts. Indiclock's list of "contributions" (and, though you won't be able to view this, list of subsequently deleted "contributions") show violations of Wikipedia's terms of service. ("Indiclock" was anyway just one of many IDs used by a "spam farm".) As for the deleted article, I don't notice within it summaries of substantial discussion of Baxter (his work or self) by reliable sources independent of him. -- Hoary (talk)WWU👍︎22:05, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Kvankramer, as Hoary has just implied above, most of the sources are written by him, or are other closely associated with him. Find independent third-party sources first, and work from them Jimfbleak - talk to me?12:47, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
This information helps. As far as I know, there is a way to start fresh by posting a disclosure stating (with a "real" writer (not Indiclock!) has a COI regarding the article's subject, not creating the article directly in mainspace, and submitting it through Articles for Creation (AfC) — a draft space where a volunteer, uninvolved editor reviews it before it goes live. And then, stress-testing notability before submitting. An AfC reviewer's first question will be: does this person meet Wikipedia's notability bar? That generally means at least three independent, reliable secondary sources that cover him in substantial detail — not passing mentions, not his own institutional bio pages. Understood, everyone, thanks. Kvankramer (talk) 19:08, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Most people on the planet do not meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability. Unless you have first found the reliable, independent, substantial, sources necessary for establishing notability, trying to create an article about somebody is a waste of everybody's time.
Unless the scammer looked for and found suitable sources (and why would they have bothered?) the article they created is going to have been worthless. ColinFine (talk) 14:46, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
Article classification not showing in TP
Latest comment: 13 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I nominated Dutch Boats in a Gale to Good Article. A reviewer classified it as B-Class according to the history and this code was added:
{{WikiProject banner shell|class=B|
{{WikiProject Visual arts}}
}}
But my GA nomination banner dissappeared from the TP, as well as the B-Class rating, so I manually added this code (which was shown in the history), trying to force the display, but with no success:
{{GA nominee|21:00, 20 July 2026 (UTC)|nominator=[[User:Jp1008|Jp1008]] ([[User talk:Jp1008|talk]])|page=1|subtopic=Art and architecture|status=|note=|shortdesc=Painting by J. M. W. Turner}}
{{WikiProject banner shell|class=B|collapsed=no|
{{WikiProject Visual arts}}
}}
@Jp1008:, the talk page looks fine to me. The version with a B class rating was 21:43, 20 July 2026 and the current version is the same with |collapsed=no added. TSventon (talk) 19:34, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 13 days ago14 comments7 people in discussion
(heading added by TooManyFingers)
I would like to add a WIKI for someone who does not have one. WHERE DO I START???? Where do I add a new Topic? I apologize but your interface makes absolutely NO SENSE to me & I am a WRIET BY PROFESSION. Patriciacunliffe (talk) 22:20, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
If you're writing for a friend, an employer, as a freelance job, or writing about yourself, please be aware that any one of those things tends to be extremely frustrating for the writer, as well as being quite likely to result in a rejection. The way to avoid these problems is to not write anything at all until you're familiar with how writing is done here and what the requirements are. If you simply get started right away, the chance of "crash and burn" is far too high. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 23:07, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
Probably the information you'll currently need the most is that information provided by the subject is not admissible as the basis of a Wikipedia article, though it can sometimes be used for minor details. The information at this link: WP:42 is very important. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 23:22, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
No offense - but I wish someone would show me how it is promotional. I ask because I write press releases & I would NEVER write a press release with just a bunch of listings. Obviously I am writing about someone's accomplishments - otherwise WHY would I even bother with wiki? Interesting that you find it promotional... Is the wiki founder by any chance a scientist or academic scholar? I find most of your articles way too verbose & boring (NOT yours personally - I mean wiki in general). I would appreciate help accessing those 4 pages that wiki thought were appropriate for my content that I cannot locate any longer. Patriciacunliffe (talk) 16:12, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
@Patriciacunliffe Promotion, on here, is not just the use of promotional techniques or styles. Mainly, it means the writer's intended audience is not the same as the encyclopedia's intended audience. When the subject is a musician, an encyclopedia's audience is similar to that for a music history textbook; deciding to include information more suited to publication in a business directory or on the musician's own website is promotion. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 18:18, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
At the time it ended with something that sounded like it was praising the encyclopedia article's subject (I'm not going to go get the diff right now to direct quote, I think it's since been removed). - Purplewowies (talk) 21:51, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft. If you don't follow this advice but try to create an article without this preparation, you are likely to have a frustrating and disappointing experience with Wikipedia.
I will also add that if you are "trying to add a Wiki for" somebody, you have basically not understood what Wikipedia is (like most people). The operation you are contemplating is writing a well-sourced, neutral, encyclopaedia article about the person. Such an article will not belong to them (or you), will not be controlled by them or you, and should have very little input from them or their associates. Writing it should begin by determining whether or not the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability: most people in the world do not, even many who have a public presence of some sort. ColinFine (talk) 09:34, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Yes, @Patriciacunliffe, I saw that. I nevertheless gave you some of my standard advice because writing for Wikipedia is different from any other kind of writing I've ever encountered, in ways that are not obvious when you first meet it. Two of the salient points are:
Information coming from the subject or from the subject's associates, via whatever channel, is mostly discounted. Official certificates and the like are also not of significant importance. See secondary sources.
An article should never present an argument or a conclusion, except when summarising an argument or conclusion which is in its entirety presented in a single reliable source. See original research.
(edit conflict) Yes, and all of those writing disciplines have different goals and employ different techniques than is the case for writing and editing on Wikipedia, [Disclosure: retired former non-fiction Editor at John Murray and elsewhere.] Even writers of scientific papers have great difficulties adjusting to Wikipedia's standards and practices. Wikipedia is peculiar to itself: if you dive in thinking you already know what to do you will fall flat. This is not a reflection on your existing writing skills, it is because you evidently do not yet understand what the rules here absolutely require.
(Consider as a parallel: even Formula One multiple World Champions are required to take "Rookie" training and pass "Rookie" tests before being allowed to compete in the Indianapolis 500.)
@Patriciacunliffe, as ColinFine noted, writing a Wikipedia article requires different practices than most other writing. Your draft, which has now been declined twice, has a number of issues. The most important is that the references are for the most part not what Wikipedia considers reliable sources; see WP:RS. IMDb is not a reliable source, since it contains user-generated content. AllMusic is marginal and can be used for some purposes, but not for biographical information; see WP:ALLMUSIC. eBay and Facebook are also WP:UGC and are not reliable. Even sources that may be acceptable as sources may not contribute to notability if they are WP:PRIMARY sources, such as interviews with the subject or their associates. From what I can see, very few, if any, of your current sources contribute to notability. See WP:GNG for a summary of what kind of sources are required: each should be reliable, independent of the subject and provide significant coverage of the subject.As it stands, the article is mostly just a list of things that Alkes has done, and name drops of people that he has worked with. That's might make a good CV, but is not really what a biographical encyclopedia article should be. Also, although less importantly, your article is not formatted like an encyclopedia article: there are no section headings and no lead. If you want to see what well-written encyclopedia articles look like, you could look at some of the music biographies which are classified as "Featured Articles" here; Featured Articles are some of the best that we have. CodeTalker (talk) 19:43, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
from a Cairo Benson requesting me to change a few issues on
Latest comment: 13 days ago9 comments8 people in discussion
Dear Wiki I got an email from a Cairo Benson requesting me to change a few issues on my wiki page, I might be at the wrong place here but does anyone know of an administrator called Cairo benson? At Wikipedia ~2026-41264-78 (talk) 09:53, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
I assume that the OP is the subject of a Wikipedia article and not (identifiable as) a Wikipedia editor. In that case a good faith editor might contact them by email, but wouldn't claim to be a non-existent admin. TSventon (talk) 14:12, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
There are very few circumstances where it might be considered appropriate for a contributor to contact a biography subject by email, unless they have previously made it clear that they wish to be contacted that way. Depending on circumstances, uninvited communications may even be regarded as harassment. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:08, 23 July 2026 (UTC)
Clearly a scam, harassment of phishing attempt. I'd advise the OP not to reply at all as it might generate risks by itself. Stansfield (talk) 11:08, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Obtaining acceptance of non-promotional editorial content.
Latest comment: 13 days ago57 comments9 people in discussion
Hello. I am writing about Alternate Concepts. I am a paid communications consultant who ranks Alternate Concepts, aka ACI, among my longstanding clients, with a relationship dating back to 2006. By way of background, I am a former print journalist (1987-1999) with several awards earned, including investigative reporting recognition in two states. I am leading an effort to provide Wiki users with a fact-based record of ACI's work at the intersection of public transit and private sector. It strikes me that more transparency regarding a private operator of public transit is important, and that is the spirit that was used in revising the text that was previously in place until last week. Please note that I aggregated and inserted citations for the content with full intent of adhering to Wiki policies. Last week, an editor named TonySt - User:TonySt - deleted all of the content after publication, claiming it was promotional. Via the 'Talk' function, I was able to communicate with TonySt to better understand the requirements, including disclosure on my page of conflict of interest about my work with ACI. Also, i spent a week carefully line editing the text to remove any adjectives or words that could not be supported by citations in the public record. Because ACI manages public services and/or provides support for a variety of public entities, I was exceptionally careful to cite records that are verifiable and linked to cites. The text sets forth the scope of contracts that ACI holds or held in the service of public transit. The claim that such content is 'promotional' defies credulity. It is not presented for the purpose of obtaining contracts, a process that is strictly managed by way of state ad federal bid regulations (under the shroud of secrecy, it should be mentioned.) It's sole purpose is to educate users about the nature of the services that ACI provides to the public via government entities. With respect, TonySt undid all of the additional edits yesterday without comment under the claim of promotional with a conflict of interest. This is frustrating because there has been no communication as to the offense committed, i.e., what text is considered promotional at this point? Is disclosure of a COI not enough, i.e. is more verbiage needed? I set forth these issues in the best spirit possible - transparency. Considering the importance of public transit to humankind, it would seem self-evident that private operators of transit systems would be encouraged to set forth their background, experience, current and former contracts, etc. Of course, the text is editable by all Wiki editors, which would allow for more edits as needed. However, to delete all of the content seems directly in contrast to the stated mission of the Wikimedia Foundation to to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license. The edited Alternate Concepts page is strictly educational and factual. I respectfully submit it merits to be available to people of the world. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 18:07, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
It's sole purpose is to educate users about the nature of the services that ACI provides Wikipedia considers this to be "promotion" within our scope of that word. Promotion is anything designed to bring attention to a subject. A Wikipedia article should generally be a completely neutral and detached summary of the information available in reliable, independent sources completely unaffiliated with and uninfluenced by the subject of the article.
This is a standard that's incredibly difficult to understand in 21st century vernacular. How does sharing information bring attention to it? This content will not be publicized. It will not be distributed. It is as neutral and detached as humanly possible within the framework of an expert (me) who has tracked the company's work for 20+ years. With respect, I can provide reliable independent sources to verify all content and remove ACI website content - but lordy, this is upside down thinking. ACI will not profit from the publication of a Wiki page. It will not benefit from publication other than to have accurate, verifiable info in the public domain. Much different than the tens of thousands of public figures who are featured on the site, etc. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 20:12, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
ACI will not profit from the publication of a Wiki page. It will not benefit from publication other than to have accurate, verifiable info in the public domain And if that wasn't a benefit to them, why would they be paying you to do it as part of their marketing/PR strategy? The Wikipedia article about them is the second google search result after their own website; that's a pretty major SEO boon. Athanelar (talk) 04:43, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
The 'stub' page that's been in place for years is inaccurate, and the company's leadership asked me to lead an effort to have content that on point, verifiable, etc. They don't benefit from SEO because they don't sell a product. Their credibility with public transportation authorities is gained or lost on the basis of highly technical documents that are submitted via publicly advertised Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for Proposals (RFP) legal advertisements for rail and transit operations and maintenance services. Read more here to learn general information about the RFQ process and here for the RFP process. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 13:46, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
@ScottDFarmelant, I will reply here as well as on your talk page. I have not edited Alternate Concepts in more than one week. Your edits were undone by another editor yesterday because they felt they were promotional edits, as you can see in the page history of the article. My name is included in the edit summary because they changed it back to how it was after I edited it on July 7. TonySt20:27, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
Thank you TonySt. It remains confusing as to why this is considered promotional as COI has been published, all adjectives removed, all cites inserted from 3rd party verifiable and trustworthy resources. ACI is an unusual entity because it provides the public with a service yet doesn't own the underlying assets that serve the public. Key point is there's nothing to be gained by accurate content other than public education and understanding of the services they use an rely upon to access work, school, healthcare, R&R, etc. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 20:31, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
Promotional means what audience it's for, not what style it's in. If you make it so that customers and investors come away stymied because they found none of what they wanted to know, that's non-promotional.
A whole different way of putting it: Wanting to make the public aware that these services are available is the very definition of promotion. The attempted fixes you described above are merely the difference between nice promotion and not-nice promotion. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 22:01, 16 July 2026 (UTC)
Neither the current version of the article, nor ScottDFarmelant's much longer promotional versions, answers two obvious questions:
What does the company actually do? Own trains? Run trains on behalf of their owner, employing train drivers etc.? Do the timetabling for trains? Something else?
This is the second sentence of the page, and clearly states exactly what ACI does for public transit authorities:
ACI provides transportation operations, coordination, consulting and maintenance services to multi-modal public authorities that own light rail, subway, streetcar, rapid transit, commuter rail, and bus networks across the United States.
Great question on the name, and there is an answer but there's no citation available! It reflects the company's origin to help secure financing for public transit authorities from private sources to fund infrastructure growth. That model obviously changed over time to a focus on operations and maintenance contracts. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 13:40, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
For example, delivering biscuits is a transport operation, improving guitar technique is coordination, and dress-code advice is consulting, but I'm pretty sure those aren't what you meant. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 05:01, 18 July 2026 (UTC)
Transport operations (for passenger rail and public transit): Moving people via public transit, buses, or trains. For ACI, transport operations means working under contract for public transportation authorities or agencies to manage the transportation of passengers by rail or bus.
Transport coordination: Assisting public transportation authorities or agencies with the management of transportation of passengers by rail or bus.
Transport consulting: Advising public transportation authorities or agencies about the management of transportation of passengers by rail or bus. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 13:01, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
I think the answer is along the lines of owning and maintaining the rolling stock for a number of relatively small rail lines, hopefully making it more economical for those lines to operate than if they each bought their own. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 19:11, 17 July 2026 (UTC)
Operations and Maintenance companies like ACI do not own assets typically, and when they do, they lease assets to public owner entities. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 12:51, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
@ScottDFarmelant Again, which you didn't grasp in any of the discussion, is that notability depends on what has been published about this company in independent media, by non-press-release-prompted, disinterested authors. Not whether transportation, or this company's place in the industry, is important, but what has been published about the company. Nothing else matters. David10244 (talk) 03:56, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
@ScottDFarmelant Why should users be educated "about the nature of the services that ACI provides to the public via government entities"? If it's all done in secrecy, then we don't need to know about it. Right? David10244 (talk) 01:21, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
Notability of Alternate Concepts
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
The best place to continue this discussion is at the AFD for the article because that where a consensus on the subject's Wikipedia notability is going to be established. Trying to hold what is essentially the same discussion simulatenously on two different pages will only lead to fragmentation, repetition, or both, which in turn will just confuse matters. -- Marchjuly (talk) 01:51, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
@ScottDFarmelant:, in case you have not noticed, the article has been nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Alternate Concepts. The criteria for notability (suitability for a Wikipedia article) of a company are explained at WP:NCORP and a key section is WP:SIRS, which says that several sources about the company need to
"Contain significant coverage addressing the subject of the article directly and in depth."
"Be completely independent of the article subject."
With respect, ACI exists at the intersection of public transit and private commerce, which creates a lack of transparency that ACI would prefer to eliminate to the degree possible. This is the challenge - who will share content about a company that exists in the public sector and behind the scenes other than somebody connected directly to the organization? Considering the many aspects of Wikipedia that are leveraged to publicize and promote commercial interests - entertainment/Hollywood, tech giants, pharma - it's fascinating that a transport management company is treated so harshly in its pursuit of sharing verifiable, non-commercial, non-promotional information in a transparent manner via Wikipedia - content that would seemingly benefit the public that uses and relies on bus, rail and similar transit services. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:05, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
@ScottDFarmelant We are treating this company as we would any other topic which clearly does not meet our criteria for inclusion. The fact is Wikipedia has, unfortunately, millions of bad articles that do not meet our criteria for inclusion but no volunteer editor has improved or marked them for deletion yet. qcne(talk)14:18, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
I don't dispute this, but I respectfully suggest the "any other topic" does not apply here because the services in question are central to the daily lives of millions of people across the world. Knowledge is power. ACI believes people should know about the contracts they hold and the services they provide to public transportation authorities across the USA. It's my hope that editors would be interested in helping solve the problem rather than dismiss it as a 'bad article.' ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:27, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Being "central to the daily lives of millions of people across the world" isn't one of our criteria for inclusion. Our criteria for inclusion is clearly stated at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). You have not demonstrated in any way the company meets any of the criteria for inclusion. qcne(talk)14:31, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Because it was created in 2021 by a volunteer editor. It is common for editors to create stubs that might not meet our criteria for inclusion. The outcome is either improvement of the content to meet our criteria, or deletion. There is currently a deletion discussion going on at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Alternate_Concepts. qcne(talk)14:53, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
"When evaluating the notability of organizations or products, please consider whether they have had any significant or demonstrable effects on culture, society, entertainment, athletics, economies, history, literature, science, or education..."
Public transportation has a profound effect, or if you will, significant and demonstrable, on society and economies. There is readily available verifiable information from reliable sources that provide evidence of notability of public transportation and by extension, the entities that operate and maintain the services. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:53, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
I like how you purposely didn't include the sentence directly above No matter how important editors personally believe an organization to be, it should not have a stand-alone article in Wikipedia unless reliable sources independent of the organization have given significant coverage to it.
Your sources do not evidence that this company has had any significant or demonstrable effects on culture, society, entertainment, athletics, economies, history, literature, science, or education etc. qcne(talk)14:55, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Apologies for not including that, but as has been stated in every thread, the article is extensively researched with citations for all statements of fact. This includes government websites, academic research sites, public transit organizations, main stream news media, and trade media. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:58, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
And you've completely avoided the point which is: there is not proof of notability via significant coverage in multiple, reliable, independent sources.
I get it: this is your job and this is your client. But this is exactly why we don't like editors with a conflict of interest editing articles. Imagine this argument, repeated for every company on earth, by every PR professional. It would destroy Wikipedia. qcne(talk)15:01, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
The article that is nominated for deletion had proposed content edits with citations from websites maintained by public agencies in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, San Juan, Washington, DC, as well as the federal government (Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration.) It included citations from media outlets like the Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, NBC 4 News/Washington DC, and American City Business Journals are referenced. It linked to citations from the non-governmental research bodies like the Transit Research Institute and World Transit Research. It also included links to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Trade publications like Railway Technology, and Railway Track and Structures are cited. Other citations include the American Passenger Transportation Association (APTA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and technical publications like Movement Engineering, Transportation Review and Transit Lab. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 15:19, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
That means you need to demonstrate that this specific company has had that kind of significant impact; with the sources to back it up. Not that the company is part of an industry that has had such an impact. Athanelar (talk) 14:55, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Public good is not the point. It's public education and awareness that's the point. Specifically, public transportation has a profound effect, or if you will, significant and demonstrable, on society and economies. There is readily available verifiable information from reliable sources that provide evidence of notability of public transportation and by extension, the entities that operate and maintain the services. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:51, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
No, there is no "by extension." Notability is not inherited, public transport companies aren't automatically notable just because the concept of public transport is notable.
I'm not sure why you're so intent to argue the point here. We have very clear guidelines on how the notability of organisations and companies are determined at WP:NCORP. Either you demonstrate the company meets those guidelines or there's no basis for an article; no two ways about it. Athanelar (talk) 14:54, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Right, but they are notable by virtue of actively operating four passenger rail systems in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey as well as San Juan? There seems to be a clear basis for an article... ScottDFarmelant (talk) 14:56, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
No, they are not notable by virtue of actively operating four passenger rail systems in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey as well as San Juan. Running four passenger rail systems is not a criteria for notability. Why are you not understanding this? qcne(talk)14:58, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
A criteria for notability "significant or demonstrable effects on culture, society, entertainment, athletics, economies," [emphasis added in bold.] The passenger rail systems in questions meet all of this basic criteria for notability and directly impact hundreds of thousands of people. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 15:01, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
We're not talking about whether "passenger rail systems" in general are notable; they obviously are, hence why we have an article about them at Passenger train. You need to demonstrate that this specific company is notable. And no, it does not inherit notability merely by being involved in the passenger rail industry. Athanelar (talk) 15:03, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
No? Where does it say anything of the sort in WP:NCORP?
What makes a company notable, as is plainly stated there, is that it has been the subject of significant coverage in multiple reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject. The scope of the company's operations, its subjective importance to public life, and whatever else you might argue, is totally irrelevant as far as our requirements are concerned. What you need is the presence of multiple sources meeting the golden rule, nothing else. Athanelar (talk) 15:00, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
For a communication professional, it's really interesting that you don't seem to be able to read headings. The Decisions based on verifiable evidence is very obviously an informative heading to help readers assess notability based on sources. The actual criteria is then, very obviously, directly below named Primary criteria. qcne(talk)15:05, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
A company, corporation, organization, group, product, or service is presumed notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in multiple reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject.
The article that is nominated for deletion had proposed content edits with citations on the basis of significant multiple reliable secondary sources that are independent of ACI, including websites maintained by public agencies in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, San Juan, Washington, DC, as well as the federal government (Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration.) It included citations from media outlets like the Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, NBC 4 News/Washington DC, and American City Business Journals are referenced. It linked to citations from the non-governmental research bodies like the Transit Research Institute and World Transit Research. It also included links to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Trade publications like Railway Technology, and Railway Track and Structures are cited. Other citations include the American Passenger Transportation Association (APTA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and technical publications like Movement Engineering, Transportation Review and Transit Lab.
It would be wonderful to cite more resources, which would surely happen if the content in question is approved for publication. Thank you. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 15:23, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Deleted by editors who objected to content on basis of me posting as paid consultant, which I disclosed in keeping with COI policy. Here's the text that was proposed then deleted via the Edit History section.
It would be wonderful if a non-paid editor cared enough to work on the proposed content so it could pass muster. Key point on this end is ACI wants more information in public domain about the 'boring business' of public transit, not less. As their rep, my role is to do what's possible within the confines of every internet platform's requirements and that's what i'm doing here. Thank you. ScottDFarmelant (talk) 15:30, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
Yeah, no, it was reverted because it was heavily promotional in tone; full of synthesized material; full of unencyclopedic and undue detail; an excessive reliance on primary sources; and still didn't prove notability.
You wrote a company tender document, not a Wikipedia article. It was wholly inappropriate for Wikipedia which is why it was reverted.
I'm doing my best and have asked for guidance. I removed all adjectives for example to avoid any possible 'promotion.' Regardless of who write it (multiple parties), it's not tender document, aka a bid response submittal, which is a highly technical legal document that includes hundreds of forms, financial documents, technical filings, etc. so that phrase simply not accurate. What's been challenging personally is the many statements about claimed issues without follow up as to what's acceptable. How else would a transportation operations and maintenance entity set forth the services it's contracted for without listing said services, outcomes, impacts, etc.? ScottDFarmelant (talk) 15:38, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
How else would a transportation operations and maintenance entity set forth the services it's contracted for... It shouldn't. That's the point. As we've tried to communicate to you many times, a Wikipedia article about a company should primarily consist of a summary of things written by people completely unrelated to the company. Wikipedia is not a place for companies to "set forth" their service offerings. Athanelar (talk) 15:56, 20 July 2026 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
why is the radiance from hollow knight not reference in the silkworm moth page
Latest comment: 13 days ago6 comments6 people in discussion
I have no idea what that is about. But if you can find a reliable independent source that discusses whatever that is, then you are welcome to edit the article to insert it. But don't do so if you haven't got a reliable published source for the information. ColinFine (talk) 09:57, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
@~2026-41138-67: It mostly has to do with how wikinotable the Radiance is outside of the game. Something like this is also more appropriate on the Hollow Knight wikis that are on the Internet. —Tenryuu🐲(💬•📝) 23:31, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
I thought this was about moths, and I wondered if "Hollow Knight" was a kind of moth. Then I wondered how radiant (reflective?) some moths are. But the other responses helped me understand. If only the OP had given some context.
It's interesting how our frames of reference can leave out important details. I do that at work sometimes, even when I try not to. The mind is a fascinating thing... David10244 (talk) 04:04, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Serif font for headings
Latest comment: 13 days ago7 comments3 people in discussion
Can one of you fine folks please set me up with a custom css that returns the section headings to use a serif font, in articles and Talk pages?
I have read the discussions on this. I don't want to turn all of the "improvements" off -- the horizontal line is OK above the heading, and the "latest comment 5 minutes ago" line is also OK. But I really hate the sans serif font on the section headings.
I would appreciate it if someone would make me a CSS file to "fix" this. And install it in my "profile". :-)
@AxG Yes, I had already read all of that... It's a somewhat complex discussion among several participants, with mentions of bugs, patches, recommended css that apparently produces errors, and another post that says "I did XYZ and it didn't work".
Hence my request here, because I am expecting some of the helpful and seasoned hosts to know css..
I know basically what css stylesheets are, but I have not created any for my account.
I was (and I still) am hopeful that someone will be kind enough to implement some css for me, based on a comment that I had read just before posting this request. ESanders of WMF said "I think user CSS is the best place for customisations like this".
2. Go to your own user CSS page at User:David10244/common.css and click the edit button. (You may see notices and so on on the page, put there by Wikipedia - just leave them as they are, and click the edit button as you ordinarily would.)
If you receive a notice that your action will create a new page, that's fine, agree to it. Then paste in the blob you copied, and click the save button.
You're done. Except that just this time, you may need to do a special reload of the Wikipedia page if you don't see your results right away. Do this by holding the Shift key while you use your browser's Reload function. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 02:44, 22 July 2026 (UTC)
@TooManyFingers Thank you, that's exactly the kind of help I need. And thanks for the pointer to (my not yet present) CSS. I will try it when I am at my computer instead of my tablet. Cool! David10244 (talk) 03:20, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
I have since discovered that this good and correct solution only covers one of the trickiest parts, namely getting serif text in the new feature on discussion pages that was being discussed on the thread we had a link to further up this topic. If you want that, you will need to add this to your file; however, it omits the easier, more basic places where you also might want serif text, and to get that you'll need to add a few more lines of a similar sort, into the same file using the same method. I've never seen exactly which lines those are, but since they're the ones with the more obvious and well-known names, I'll find them without much trouble. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 03:49, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
@TooManyFingers Ah, thanks for that. I haven't been to my desktop computer yet.
But you see why I was saying "I know it's complicated", and the previous answer was not complete (or really very helpful).
Your answer was way more helpful, and I appreciate your help.
I hate to ask the developers for more "options", but different people like different things. I like the other discussion changes but certainly not the sans serif font.
It's not the end of the world, but if others feel the same way then an option OR an easy set of CSS would be good.
Latest comment: 13 days ago5 comments4 people in discussion
I've been asked by a COI editor to update Richard J. Estes as he's recently died; the text is obviously straightforward, but I'm not sure what else needs to be changed so the article is not tagged as a BLP any more. Help, please? Meadowlark (talk) 04:36, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
@David10244, @.nhals8, of course, I understand that, and if it were a news event for some reason I'd have added a recent death maintenance tag - but this seems like a quiet biography that doesn't need it. Is it really as simple as removing the category? (thanks nhals8 for doing that!) That I can definitely manage next time. Meadowlark (talk) 05:57, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
ANI about an LLM-generated mass messaging script
Latest comment: 13 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I remember an ANI where a user sent out over 900 notifications for an AfD, including to nonexistent users, using an LLM-generated script that blanked existing content on the user talk pages. I was unable to locate it with search, despite trying numerous keywords. Can you find it? –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 04:53, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
I'm not sure how to properly update the rationale as |Portion= and |Low resolution= are both missing with the "optional" |Replaceability_text= also missing. Meanwhile, |Replaceability=, |Minimality=, and |Commercial= are all just ".". It feels wrong to just CSD it and let someone else replace it, but as not the creator I don't know how to answer those. Jerod Lycett (talk) 11:33, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Draft:Louisiana Federation of Teachers
Latest comment: 13 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Please note that Wikipedia is edited by volunteer editors (like you and me) who work on whatever they choose.
While it's possible that your appeal will strike some editor reading this page as what they want to work on, it's not very likely.
Where you might be able to find somebody willing to help you find sources at appropriate WikiProjects such as WT:WikiProject Louisiana or WT:WikiProject Education; but again, there's no guarantee.
Generally, if you want something done to an article (or draft) most times the most effective way to do so is to do it yourself.
Unfortunately, you appear to have done something which many new editors do, and plunged straight into the most challenging task there is for a new editor: creating an article.
My suggestion is that you leave this draft alone for some weeks or months while you make yourself more familiar with Wikipedia's standards and policies by making improvements to existing articles: once you have understood reliable sources and WP:42, you may have a better chance of finding suitable sources.
Even if your draft is declined again, it will not get deleted unless it is untouched for six months; so you can safely leave it for a while until you have a better understanding of what is needed. ColinFine (talk) 13:35, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Draft declined
Latest comment: 13 days ago5 comments5 people in discussion
While my piece was being rejected yesterday - I also got another message with 4 other music pages that invited me to submit the content there - but today when I am looking for them - I'm no longer able to find them. I thought I had just hit another tab, but apparently not. How do I find those 4 invites again? Patriciacunliffe (talk) 16:04, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
Please note, Patriciacunliffe: your Draft has not been "Rejected", it has been "Declined": the distinction is important.
"Declined" means "Your draft has not reached all the required standards yet [likely with further explanations and comments of how it hasn't]. Please improve as suggested and submit again."
It is quite usual for drafts to go through several rounds of submissions, declines, improvements and resubmissions. So long as genuine improvements are evident each time, this is entirely acceptable.
"Rejected" means "This is not a suitable subject for a Wikipedia article at this time and no amount of effort can make it so. Please do not resubmit as this will waste your time and ours."
The usual reason for unsuitability is that the subject is not "Notable" in the sense that Wikipedia jargonises that word (or, at least, because the Draft has not demonstrated Notability with suitably cited sources). This may be because the subject has simply not been published about in suitable sources; because what has (if anything) been published about them is routine and unremarkable; or because they may potentially, one day, be published about sufficiently but as yet it is simply "Too soon".
The fact that your Draft has been Declined and not Rejected indicates that the reviewer(s) think that, with further work, it can be made acceptable.
Please take on board that it is insufficient merely to list a subject's activities and published works. A Wikipedia article needs to show, by citing sources, that those activities and works have been recognised as significant, and written about reasonably extensively (winning significant awards also helps): see in particular Wikipedia:Notability (people)#Creative professionals. Unfortunately, some professions, though valuable, are less often written about because their activities are somewhat "backroom" (most record label executives certainly fall into this category), and it is not at all unusual for, for example, a particular book to be 'Notable' (and be the subject of a Wikipedia article) but its author not (and not be).
... and the reason is that these show-off-style words are editorial choices, not quoted from a reliable third-party source. Any words that might help make the subject (or their products, their experiences, etc) seem special, interesting, unique, elevated, or any other good thing, must come from reliable and specifically-identified third parties. Please see MOS:PUFFERY. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 15:09, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Dsitrict to District
Latest comment: 13 days ago4 comments3 people in discussion
In about 20 articles a supplied reference title appears as: "Dhanbad Dsitrict Map." as seen in article "Tetulmari". Can someone do what is done in edits of multiple articles edits of the same intent?~2026-32542-29 (talk) 01:27, 24 July 2026 (UTC)
You just need to work hard and edit a lot! You get there when you have 500 edits and 30 days of activity, if I remember correctly. Help out where you can! Edit! Get to a point where not only Wikipedia can trust you to edit about contentious topics, but where you are able to trust yourself. Sincerely, WikipediholicRat (talk)16:47, 25 July 2026 (UTC).
See WP:ECREXPLAIN. It requires at least 500 edits to the English Wikipedia and after 30 days have passed since the account's first edit. This is quite steep, but it is needed on some high profile articles where disruptive users have bypassed WP:SILVERLOCK which is semi-protection. ♦IanMacM♦(talk to me)16:50, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Site not found
Latest comment: 13 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Latest comment: 12 days ago4 comments2 people in discussion
I created an account because I got sick of losing the ability to easily track what edits I've made, and was hoping to start with the current history of my last TA. Am I out of luck as far as preserving those contributions go? FineIllDoIt (talk) 21:25, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
One option would be to list those TA on your account's userpage. You can easily find what you've done if you want to revisit pre-account edits or pages of interest and others can appreciate your edit history as a person even if it is not attributed within the software itself. However, that opens the door to many more people being able to know your IP address, which is a major concern for many people and negates one of the advantages of having an actual account. DMacks (talk) 21:31, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Is The Weather Channel website reliable?
Latest comment: 12 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I was reading the page on Tropical cyclones in 2026 and saw a section was empty. While I was about to add something to it, I looked for references to back up my info. Is the Weather Channel a good source for these sorts of things? I asked since it may fall under the primary sources rule, being a Weather related company. TheNerdy Parakeet (talk) 01:38, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Hello, TheNerdyParakeet. There is no problem with the fact that the Weather Channel focuses on weather. After all, the Wall Street Journal focuses on business and is an excellent source for business coverage. When the Weather Channel is reporting in real time about today's weather, it is a primary source. When they run a long form documentary about some past severe hurricane, tornado or flood, then that is a secondary source, which is preferable. Primary sources can be used for basic facts but secondary sources are best for analysis and drawing conclusions. Cullen328 (talk) 07:11, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Make a donation
Latest comment: 12 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
You need to provide some kind of default value in case the value is absent. You can do that using syntax like this: {{{parameter-name|default-value}}}, replacing both those with the actual things you want. So for example, if you want your name parameter to default to the page title, you could do {{{name|{{PAGENAME}}}}}, or if you wanted your age parameter to just not appear if it is absent, you could do {{{age|}}}, which just replaces it with nothing if it is missing. {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs|in solidarity}}08:02, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Wiki page for myself a sports related
Latest comment: 12 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
The very short answer is- you shouldn't, it's strongly discouraged.
The longer answer is described at the autobiography policy. Wikipedia is not a place for people to tell the world about themselves- or what they want the world to know about themselves. A Wikipedia article should summarize what independent reliable sources with significant coverage have chosen on their own to say about the person, showing how they meet the special Wikipedia definition of a notable person. "Significant coverage" means critical analysis and commentary, not just the mere description of the person's activities. This is usually very, very difficult for someone to do about themselves, as it requires setting aside what one knows about themselves and only writing based on what others have said. Most people cannot do this, and few succeed. Are you the rare person who can? Possibly, but the odds are against it.
That information may or may not be correct. It is referenced to RootsWeb, which consists of user generated content. Such websites do not meet Wikipedia's Reliable source standards. That does not mean that the specific content is incorrect. It just needs a better source. Cullen328 (talk) 07:22, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
That discussion still does not address the quality of the reference presentation. Anyways Gen site use is original research rather than secondary affirmation from authorities generally recognized as acceptable.~2026-32542-29 (talk) 16:39, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Apparently blocked user - who isn't blocked
Latest comment: 12 days ago11 comments7 people in discussion
Looking at the page history of Periyar, the editor of the last entry is crossed through, as if the user is blocked. Looking at their block log, they were blocked for 24 hours over 2 years ago, but are not currently blocked. What is going wrong? - Arjayay (talk) 12:20, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
The global block was dated 24 May 2026, and they are still editing, presumably because the Whitewashing states "exempt global block on homewiki". The fact that their edits are struck though led me to waste time investigating a perfectly good edit; can the striking-through be turned off, to avoid other editors wasting their time? - Arjayay (talk) 13:50, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
I do not see any strike through of edits in the page history. Might you have some optional gadget or CSS modification enabled that does this? older ≠ wiser13:56, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
When I toggle
User preferences -> Gadgets -> ("Appearance" section) -> Strike out usernames that have been blocked
Thanks TooManyFingers, but that is not a solution to my specific problem. I would like usernames who are blocked on en.wikipedia, to be struck, but usernames who are not blocked on en.wikipedia, not to be struck, even if they are blocked elsewhere. Looks like I may have to accept the current confusion. Thanks all. - Arjayay (talk) 15:14, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
I want the same as you, and I only intended to pinpoint the (apparent) source of the problem, not suggest that you should turn off this useful feature. They can't fix it unless they know where it is.:) TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 15:20, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Is it true that some usernames who are not blocked on en.wikipedia are struck? Because users who are blocked globally are blocked on en.wikipedia. --Guy Macon (talk) 16:47, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
I believe that I've seen that expired TAs are struck through, even if they've never been blocked. I guess the rationale is that the TA is no longer usable, but I find it rather confusing. CodeTalker (talk) 19:27, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Accidentally uploaded the same photo twice
Latest comment: 11 days ago6 comments3 people in discussion
On the page I'm working on (C.E. Poverman), I somehow uploaded the same author photo twice by accident. How do I eliminate one of them or does an editor have to do that? Thanks. Hedman1 (talk) 16:21, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Thanks for responding. What I'm referring to is that there is a box in the lower right hand corner of the photo frame (white area below the photo). If you click on that, two of the same photo appear. I minimized one of the photos as for some reason it appeared in the middle of the text of the article as well as in the photo box. Hedman1 (talk) 21:13, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Please see WP:MINOR; changing tone would not be a minor edit, as tone can be disputed. A minor edit is something that cannot possibly be disputed, like fixing spelling or grammar. 331dot (talk) 08:19, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
A rule of thumb is, if you aren't sure if it's minor, it's not. Much better to leave something unmarked than mark a controversial edit as minor. (Even one word can be highly controversial: saw a badly labeled one-word edit a while back where the word was "not"!) M kuhner (talk) 21:01, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
I see you already have replies, but I'm going to drop one more note in here. From WP:MINOR:
A minor edit requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute.
So if it could be of dispute, it's not minor. Tone is included there. However, if you're changing a comma splice to a semicolon, for example, then it likely is minor. If you want to err on the side of caution, don't mark it as minor. Hope this helps. --ABx11 (she/they) 04:14, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
It should be said that essentially the only thing marking your edit as "minor" does is allow people to easily filter it out when searching through edit history, other than that it serves no particular crucial function. I can't remember the last time I marked an edit as minor; don't worry too much about it. Athanelar (talk) 05:38, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Problem / problems
Latest comment: 11 days ago5 comments4 people in discussion
Oh, but it's worse than that. Problem (disambiguation) starts "A problem is a difficulty which may be resolved by problem solving." (If my bike has a puncture, this is more or less of a problem, but calling it "a difficulty which may be resolved by problem solving" is ... odd.) -- Hoary (talk)WWU👍︎08:11, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
"Resolved by solving" also needs a look by the Committee Against Tautologically Redundant Phrasing in Saying the Same Thing Over Again By Repeating It After the First Time Prevention Committee. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 09:27, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Why don't we go even further? A problem is an issue which presents a difficulty, and it may be resolved by a solution determined through problem solving. Athanelar (talk) 05:39, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 11 days ago6 comments3 people in discussion
I've ticked "Hide minor edits from the watchlist" under Preferences, Watchlist, but am still seeing a lot of minor edits, clearly labelled with their m. Have I misunderstood this, is there a different definition of "minor edit", or what is happening here? Can someone please shed some light. I enquired first at WP:VP(T) but my post has just been archived unanswered after 6 days. PamD17:08, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
@Michael D. Turnbull I've not hidden them in the past but have recently got bored of seeing so many watchlist entries for tweaking deprecated infobox parameters or making refinements to categories so decided that probably very few babies would be thrown out with the bathwater if I suppressed the minor edits. But I can't get it to work. I've just checked, again, that there's a tick beside "Hide minor edits from the watchlist", but still edits such as this, labelled as minor, are showing on the watchlist. I experimented with unticking it, reloaded watchlist, no difference, so then re-ticked it, still no difference.
(Why's that pond on my watchlist? Because I stub-sorted it many years ago, and created a talk page with project banners, before we had the chance to watchlist for a fixed term: it got added to my watchlist forever by default because I created the talk page. I might remove it, but not right now as I've used it as this example.) Here's another example from my watchlist. PamD20:18, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
@PamD Well, that is strange. I watchlisted Ellis Pond and immediately saw that minor edit on my watchlist. Then I ticked "Hide minor edits from the watchlist", saved, and returned to my watchlist and that edit was, correctly, no longer visible. So the issue seems to be specific to your account, which I can't explain! Your best hope is WP:VPT, linking this thread for context. Mike Turnbull (talk) 21:31, 25 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 11 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Reference help requested.
Can you help me? I tried to add a reference to Taysom Hill but the citation button somehow didn't add it correctly. I got a notice from a bot about it and would like to fix the error.
@Dafootballguy I'd ask at WP:VPT if you want more technical help. I don't know how it works, but it is powered by Zotero, which can be finicky like this at times as it tries to "guess" stuff like the title, source, etc. of the article based on webpage info. --ABx11 (she/they) 04:10, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
There is nothing to do with Zotero or any other metadata detail here. It's just a syntax error in the call to the Wikipedia citation-formatter template. Fixed. DMacks (talk) 11:15, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Image copyright help
Latest comment: 11 days ago4 comments3 people in discussion
Hi,
I want to know if I can use the images on this page:
They have diagrams that I'd like to use in articles. The problem is that they claim copyright of the images in their ToU. IANAL, but aren't images produced by government organizations automatically public domain? --ABx11 (she/they) 04:06, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
It's true of the US Federal Government, but for others (whether sub-national, as here, or of course foreign) it may or may not be, and I gather has to be determined on a case-by-case basis. I think the fact that copyright is here explicitly claimed is a strong indicator: commercial companies (such as Picture Libraries, in my personal experience) may overstate their copyright claims, but an organisation such as TriMet seems unlikely to.
Commons has a robust category tree. If you know what the subject is, you can start somewhere and then drill down/up/sideways depending how general the topic is and how many variations of files exist for it. Every image has a title and (ideally) a description, among which is usually at least one keyword that can be found by searching. DMacks (talk) 12:20, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Payment
Latest comment: 11 days ago5 comments4 people in discussion
If you are referring to a donation you have made to the Wikimedia Foundation, you will need to make an inquiry with them directly; we editors have nothing to do with the donation process. Please email donate(at)wikimedia.org. 331dot (talk) 21:37, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
@~2026-41619-84: If it's not about a donation then I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 7.2 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:52, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Florida congressional district error needs to be addressed
Latest comment: 10 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Hello! I do not have any clue as to where I should tell you all about this, so I decided to post here because it is going to be read faster. Anyways, I have noticed that every Florida congressional district has an error involving the map files. It seems there is supposed to be an interactive map file for each one but the files which are being referenced by the page do not (or possibly no longer) exist. I would like help relating to this situation by either creating the files or removing all instances to contact them. Thanks! Γ+2 (talk) 19:08, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 10 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Is it really appropriate for Body weight to redirect to Human body weight? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a broader article at "body weight" covering the concept across all animals, with "human body weight" as the main article for the human-specific aspects? "Body weight" is a generic scientific term and is not inherently restricted to humans. ~2026-41659-08 (talk) 00:26, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
You are probably right, but this requires some volunteer to first create the more general article, which I suspect would be no small task.
'Human body weight' would probably still be the most frequent intended topic for searches on "Body weight", so the best option might be to add to the current hat-note on it (which appears after redirection),
I agree especially with the idea that redirects should go to the topics that people commonly intend, and should not go to a "science surprise" that is technically true but not what they were looking for. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 01:54, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Ref error
Latest comment: 10 days ago2 comments1 person in discussion
Why is Talbotiella showing as having a reference error? I've checked the code (using source editor), and it looks correct. Weirdly it looks fine in the preview. Is this a known bug? EmergentAnarchy (talk) 08:55, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 10 days ago5 comments3 people in discussion
I wanted to nominate an article for deletion and I added an AfD tag with the number one by mistake. I didn't know that because it was already nominated by deletion a new discussion wasn't opened. I tried to revert my edit and a filter didn't allow me to. What should I do? Koubaki (talk) 09:02, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I've removed the tag.
In future, you should make deletion nominations with WP:TWINKLE. It handles the nomination process with one click. AfD nominations are otherwise far too complicated to try to do by hand. Athanelar (talk) 09:06, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
That's good advice but this report does indicate a problem. I was editing for ages before I discovered Twinkle, and I wasted far too many hours fiddling about with complex procedures, sometimes getting it wrong. Experienced editors don't see how intricate these operations are. Either the processes need to be simplified or Twinkle needs to be better advertised (or both). Certes (talk) 09:22, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 10 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Can’t log in, since I need to enter the text from a captcha, but it is solid white so I can’t read the text/there is no text. Refreshing doesn’t help ~2026-41730-78 (talk) 10:48, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
@~2026-41730-78: If you use Dark at Special:MobileOptions then try Light. You could also try "Desktop view" at the bottom of pages. If you use a dark mode on your device then try to disable it or change to light mode. Try another Wikimedia wiki like meta:. If you log in there and come here then you should still be logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:51, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Andrey Rublev
Latest comment: 10 days ago6 comments5 people in discussion
The Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev is sometimes spelled Andrey Rublev in some sources. Given that this alternative spelling is identical to the title of the tennis player's article, do you think a simple hatnote is sufficient, or would it be preferable to move the tennis player's article to Andrey Rublev (tennis player) to avoid potential confusion? ~2026-41904-71 (talk) 16:25, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
The tennis player gets ten times more page views than the painter, so it's probably safe to leave him as the primary topic for the Y spelling and just keep the hatnote. Certes (talk) 16:40, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Given the extensive ignorance of most English speakers about written Russian and other Slavic languages, why not go for Andrei Rublyov (tennis player), since it approximately accords with the pronunciation of the existing articles about the iconist Andrei Rublyov and the soldier Semyon Budyonny? I hope that the ghost of Semen Budenny doesn't take offence. If only written 'ë 'was transliterated as yo, rather than imagining that Cyrillic 'ë' = English 'e' = 'є', which it doesn't: but hey, the unmusical and uninterested speakers of the so-callled English language. MinorProphet (talk) 17:06, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Hello, @MinorProphet. The key question is not how the name is pronounced, or how it should logically be transliterated, but how it appears in the majority of English-language sources (per WP:COMMONNAME).
It is completely bonkers that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is written in English with that "T" in front of his name (because French), but that is how his name has been written in English for well over a century, and it is not up to Wikipedia to try and change consensus. ColinFine (talk) 08:29, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Hi, Colin. I completely agree with you, but you incidentally prove my point exactly. The composer's name is indeed correctly written Pyotr, because Пётр - with the Cyrillic 'ë' - is indeed pronounced exactly thus, and not Peter or 'Petr' as English transcriptions had it and, I suggest, for considerably less than a century:
Tchaikovsky, Peter IlichGrove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd Edition (1904) Vol. V, p. 33.
There's always Tchaikovsky Research eg Bibliography (1970) - randomly chosen but not investigated - I could go on...
Therefore, as you say, Rublev. Q.E.D. Maybe the rest of the world will get it in 100 years' time: but I bet Tchaikovsky's music will outlast the evanescent fame of some bloke named Rublyov who rushed around trying to hit a bouncy ball. See - eventually - Budyonny as above, despite Budenny, which is only comparatively recent. I expect my ghost will be haunting these pages. MinorProphet (talk) 13:13, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I once had a professor in a music theory course who would go on rants about Tchaikovsky and how it should be Chaĭkovskiĭ. Thankfully, it was a general course for an elective that interested me; I think if it had been a specialized course on Russian composers, I would have gone mad just trying to spell the professor's preferred names, and would have had to drop the course. CoffeeCrumbs (talk) 15:07, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Creating framework for roster entry for sports team
Latest comment: 9 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Page does not currently contain a roster entry for the team of 1967. Various other seasons contain a separate roster section, however there doesn't appear to be a uniform method for adding the entry. Would it be possible to add a framework for any page without including the individual players or can it only be created as the whole table?
How does one add an item in related articles (in this case the football media guide published by the university for the corresponding year), and link the cover image to the header of the page? The media guide will generally contain the roster and in cases where the roster is unavailable via the media guide it can be found on a game-by-game basis in the programs for each game many which are available through the university's digital library. BigBlueChaos (talk) 20:07, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Enrico Tazzoli (priest)
Latest comment: 9 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi, this is the second time I have requested the move of Enrico Tazzoli (priest) (see the talk page), but I still have not received any response. I have already notified the relevant WikiProjects about the discussion. Is there any other way to get feedback? ~2026-41785-65 (talk) 18:09, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
For info: a previous discussion had resulted in 'No consensus', but had only two opposed comments. Two users have joined the new discussion on the Talk page since the above was posted.
It seems that this is not a topic that excites much interest, and the bare name is a disambiguation page for the two alternatives of the Priest and the two submarines named after him, so there is no great navigation difficulty. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 22:01, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
why is "restore this version" less dangerous than rollback?
Latest comment: 9 days ago5 comments4 people in discussion
Can anyone point to a discussion that explains why rollback is a user right that must be applied for, but "restore this version," which is potentially even more destructive--and does not allow preview either, as I've found to my cost several times--is available for everyone? I feel there must be something here that I don't understand, and better learn about before applying for rollback.
(I work on LLM text removal, so I end up doing things like this a lot. Have borked more than a few infoboxes, and gotten my ears pinned back for it. Because of the lack of preview, "restore this version" is a really good way to introduce errors you won't see in a quick scan of the actual text; you have to make a mock edit and use preview. Learned the hard way.) M kuhner (talk) 20:48, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Rollback is a one-click function, restore this version is two clicks, one to start the process and one to complete it. It is essentially a normal edit, unlike rollback. 331dot (talk) 21:38, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
'Restore this version' also prompts for an edit-summary, for you to explain what you're doing and why. WP:ROLLBACK is designed for edits that really don't need an edit-summary, so it requires a bit more trust that the editor is doing the right thing. DMacks (talk) 22:12, 26 July 2026 (UTC)
Also, @M kuhner, you technically can preview "Restore this version" by first clicking the timestamp of the version in question, which will take you to view the revision of the page as of that time. Granted this doesn't give you a full diff view compared to the current version, but it's not nothing. Athanelar (talk) 05:35, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Thank you all, that answers my question. I will try Athanelar's tip to avoid further "You broke the infobox!" issues. M kuhner (talk) 22:50, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Unable to revert bad youtube link edit due to blacklist issue
Latest comment: 9 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hello,
A user replaced a link with a youtube link, which I do not feel is appropriate for Wikipedia and a similar edit like this was removed. However, when I try to revert the edit, it says that the original site is registered on Wikipedia's blacklist.
By first of all finding at least three (more if possible) separate published items that fully comply with all of the conditions summarised at WP:Golden rule. Without those, no article is possible, because schools have no automatic presumption of Notability: see Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Schools.
Once those sources are found, their content and nothing else can be summarised and structured (and cited) to form a Draft article: see Help:Your first article). Very limited additional facts (such as the name of the current Head Teacher, etc.) may be added from sources that are connected to the school (such as its website).
Note that if you have any connection to the school, this is a WP:Conflict of interest that you should declare somewhere, probably on the Talk page of the Draft if you do not create your own Wikipedia account.
Additionally, if you are any kind of employee of the school, or any School District authority it may fall under, you must also declare yourself to be a WP:Paid editor. Remember also that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that maintains a neutral point of view, and any kind of promotion of a subject is forbidden.
Your query did not specify that you were willing to (attempt to) create the article, but it is very unlikely that any other editor will volunteer to do it for you. All Wikipedia editors are volunteers who only do what they choose to, so nobody can be assigned to the task. Hope this helps. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 10:58, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
How long does it take to get input from RFC?
Latest comment: 9 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Hi, I'm just wondering how long it usually takes for RFC input? I put in a request about three days ago for the Princess Alice of Battenberg page and have only had one person respond, other than those already involved in the conversation before the RFC was requested. ItsShandog (talk) 07:46, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 days ago4 comments4 people in discussion
My not for profit organisation's page (UK Music) is severely out of date and requires a raft of updates. When my colleagues have previously tried to update the page their edits have been rejected. Please can you advise on how we can update our page?
@~2026-41927-11 Editors with a conflict of interest need to first create an account so that they can make the appropriate disclosures (in this case covered by WP:PAID since you are employees of the organisation) and then you can use the WP:Edit request wizard to guide you in making edit requests which will then be reviewed and implemented by independent volunteer editors. Athanelar (talk) 15:00, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 days ago6 comments2 people in discussion
I made a request for redirecting, and it was automatically cancelled. Below I paste in the text. The basic thing is simply that an entry on a famous Buddhist monk has the not entirely correct spelling "Chandawimala" and I would like to ensure that someone searching with the correct spelling "Chandavimala" will find this entry. What did I do wrong?
Buddhist Peter
Target of redirect: Chandawimala
Reason: The spelling "Chandawimala" (for this entry: Rerukane Chandawimala Thera) is common in Sri Lanka but not correct, as the name of a Theravada monk is in Pali, and the Pali spelling is Chandavimala. In order for anyone who searches the above entry with the correct spelling Chandavimala to arrive at it, I suggest a redirect.
Source (if applicable):
Buddhist Peter (talk) 14:24, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Declined. A redirect cannot be created unless the target is an existing article. Either you have not specified the target, or the target does not exist. (Automatically declined) Buddhist Peter (talk) 14:31, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Buddhist Peter, the request was declined automatically because the target you suggested did not exist. I suggest you resubmit the request with the following changes:
I really appreciate your kindness in trying to help me. What happens now is that I get blocked from publishing the redirect with the message "Your changes could not be saved because of an edit conflict. Would you like to resolve the conflict manually?" When I try to do that, I land on a version of my first attempt to redirect. (If this is taking up too much of your time, please feel welcome to forget about it). Buddhist Peter (talk) 16:13, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
I try to handle edit conflicts by opening a new version of the page I am editing, then copying my edit from the edit conflict report, unless the edit by another editor makes my edit unnecessary.
I have copied your original request into the form with corrections, hopefully a page watcher will see it shortly, they may have queries. TSventon (talk) 16:27, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Wikibreaks?
Latest comment: 9 days ago9 comments5 people in discussion
What is a common practice regarding Wikibreaks? Is there a significant number of people who believe that Wikibreaks should be done, even if one feels energetic? I'm asking about customs, not Wikipedia policy. I was thinking of maybe taking a 15 day or 30 day break, though 30 days seems a little long. Vanguard10 (talk) 17:57, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
The common practice is as follows:
1. It's good that you know about this. In my opinion, more people should know.
2. Take the concept - i.e. there is such a thing as taking a break from Wikipedia, and you or anyone can do that - and use it in the way that makes sense in your circumstances.
I think that's basically it.
Opinion section:
In my opinion, the length of break you decide to take probably has a lot to do with why you're thinking of taking it. The break is supposed to help something, so it should be enough to have a good chance of helping that thing. And all of that is your private business, unless you choose to discuss it. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 18:14, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I would also say - just my opinion - that if I was taking one, I would hope to avoid announcing it and just do it. But that might not always work, I don't know. Whatever works for each person. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 18:20, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I didn't want others to think I lack interest in Wikipedia, like not showing up for work. On the other hand, most people don't really care if you're editing or not on a particular day.
Sometimes, there are active discussions so that would be a poor time to take a Wikibreak.
The last time I took a wikibreak it was because I caught myself getting ready to react WAY negatively to something that didn't warrant that reaction. It was due to some off-wiki stuff too, but that made me sit down and go "oh. I should take a break. and enforce it." I was only gone for about a week IIRC, but it was a useful week. (Previous wikibreaks were more casual and didn't involve the enforcer, but I was afraid if I even looked at Wikipedia in any useful sense while breaking it'd ruin the whole reason I took the break. But I can guarantee no one will believe you don't have interest--I was literally in an active discussion when I sat there and basically said out loud I was gonna go on wikibreak (because while I caught myself with the bad negativity, I didn't fully stop myself from vocalizing part of the feeling). No one batted an eye or cared. I probably wouldn't recommend doing it while you're actively involved in something unless you need to, but IMO anyone should feel free to take a wikibreak whenever they want 99% of the time. - Purplewowies (talk) 01:44, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
There are reasons why I edit sparingly aside from during downtime at work (especially on weekends), and one reason is because I don't want to get too invested in Wikipedia and lose my perspective. That said, I wouldn't make too much of a "business" of taking a Wikibreak. If it's a short amount of time, nobody's going to be upset if you just disappear for a week or so unless you're in the middle of a dispute or such, and you can always slap Template:Wikibreak on your Talk page or such, with or without specifying a return date. DonIago (talk) 02:15, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
I think it varies a lot by person. Some can spend a lot of time on Wikipedia for years and not have any problems (that I know of). Some know that they need to be intentional about taking breaks, or life circumstances force them to. Personally, I find that I drift closer to and farther away from Wikipedia—if you look at my edit history you'll see a couple months where I edit a lot, then a gradual slowdown, then a few months where I barely edit at all, and then a sudden increase, and so on. LittlePuppers (talk) 03:28, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Not have any problems? It is not that hard to find conflict and unreasonable people in Wikipedia. One place and, by far, not the most contentious, is where some Wikiproject impose restrictions on articles where if the restriction is followed, goes against Wikipedia policy. I saw a former Arb Com member who said so, though I observed it before seeing that comment. Two examples come to mind. One is where the Wikiproject rejects secondary sources. Only a primary source (like from the company) is accepted. Another example prohibits a major variant from appearing in a table, even if there are many reliable sources. So "can spend a lot of time on Wikipedia for years and not have any problems" is unusual if one is very observant. Some things are not worth debate. Make a comment then go away and let the bullies win. That is not a battleground mentality but an astute observation. It's like living in a Communist country. Just bow your head and move on. Vanguard10 (talk) 16:38, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Not that you can be here a long time and not notice any problems (though I don't recall anything quite to the extent you note in my time here, I'm sure it exists), and not that you can be here for a long time and never have a disagreement; but yes, I would assert that there are editors (I can think of a few off the top of my head) who have been here for many years and remain well-respected and don't seem to be burnt out. We're talking about whether to take a break for your own benefit—not hoping that taking a break will magically make human nature go away. LittlePuppers (talk) 16:56, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
"Reliablity" of non-English, non-Western secondary sources
Latest comment: 9 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Are the Marathi newspapers Sakal and Nav-Shakti and Maharashtra Times and Loksatta classified as "reliable sources" for the purposes of Wikipedia draft articles? Prachi Khandeparkar (talk) 18:03, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
Accessing "old" gen AI response before a Wikipedia article was published?
Latest comment: 9 days ago14 comments8 people in discussion
Odd question here - I'm a high school teacher, and created the Wikipedia page Capitol Crawl to use as a demonstration for my students (also because it well exceeds the notability guidelines and should've had its own page ages ago!). Many popular websites say or imply that the Capitol Crawl was a major catalyst for the passage of the ADA, but I found in my research that the reality is more nuanced, so the page reflects that.
When I ask Chat GPT about the impact of the Capitol Crawl, its response closely mirrors what I wrote, and cites the Wikipedia page as its source. I'm confident that these responses would have been different before I created the article, and I'd love to use this as an example for my students of the limits of AI and how AI models get their information. But sadly, I didn't think of it until now! Is there a way I can see what an AI model like Chat GPT would have said about this topic before the article was written? If it's relevant, the article was created on May 10th. MissRedwood (talk) 22:50, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
I'm curious whether we could bring the whole AI thing to a grinding halt just by asking how it would have answered differently at different specific times in the past.:) TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 01:58, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
@MissRedwood That's an interesting project. I have also noticed that new articles get quickly picked up by LLMs. This has also been reported for non-Wikipedia sources, e.g.. Could be a fun thing to look at next time someone develops an article on an otherwise obscure topic. Best, CMD (talk) 01:54, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Exceedingly poor/misdirected advice
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Obviously you will have to start all over again with an entirely new subject, and don't ever refer to Capitol Crawl again, or this post, don't even use the same account: literally wipe the slate clean. See Wikipedia:Courtesy vanishing. You can hide this entire conversation as well, no-one will care, we get it, otherwise, y'know... MinorProphet (talk) 01:54, 28 July 2026 (UTC)<!-- Just put these hidden marks around everything -->
You would need to use a model trained before you published the article and disallow the model from searching but it's totally possible. I can probably get what you're looking for once I'm back on desktop. MetalBreaksAndBends (One for all)02:06, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I don't think that would work? Even if you used an old model it would still have access to current information. You'd have to use an old dataset and I don't believe that's possible. I don't think old datasets are even stored. Electricmemory (talk) In solidarity03:41, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Unless I'm mistaking your terminology, the model is the dataset. The only ways to give a model access to new information are either giving it access to the internet, or training (in part or in full) a new model. LittlePuppers (talk) 04:07, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Just got around to it. This is gpt-5.4 mini's answer bc for some reason open router hates me.
GPT-5.4-mini slopping it up
**The impact of the Capitol Crawl on March 12, 1990** was that it became a **highly visible, emotionally powerful protest** that helped push disability rights into the national spotlight. Activists crawling up the steps of the U.S. Capitol dramatized the barriers faced by people with disabilities and showed how inaccessible public spaces were. Its broader impact included:
- **Building public pressure** for disability rights legislation - **Helping speed support for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)**, which was passed later in 1990 - **Turning accessibility from an abstract policy issue into a vivid moral and political issue** - Becoming an **iconic moment in the disability rights movement**
So, in short: the Capitol Crawl was not the only reason the ADA passed, but it was a **pivotal symbolic action** that helped galvanize momentum for the law.
I’m editing Neighbor Discovery Protocol to fix an SVG which doesn’t display properly in dark mode. It uses an infobox showing an SVG image. Since this SVG doesn’t display in dark mode, I want to add skin-invert-image to it (and I don’t want to break other articles using the same infobox template). How do I add the invert option only to the single image?
Formally, the template needs to support adding CSS classes to the image. Informally, there are hacky ways to add classes without needing explicit template support.The infobox template that Neighbor Discovery Protocol uses, {{Infobox networking protocol}}, does not support image classes. I have just added support to it so that you can add |image class = skin-invert-image to the NDP article. This should not affect other articles. LightNightLights (talk • contribs) 01:33, 30 July 2026 (UTC)(edited 01:41, 30 July 2026 (UTC))
Good morning /good eve mam/sir... Concern me TikTok Shop..do not order and resive order TikTok Shop. Why cash out balance my gcash account..
Pls helf me refund balance.sir start date July 01 2026...very sory today me report u I'm busy work construction skilld
Carpenter house repair. Start one day morning 7:30pm to 5:00 evening shine or rain Freddierick millo musni (talk) 20:20, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
There was one a few weeks ago who complained about TikTok ignoring him in this help desk. I think when you type TikTok in the search query of a specific search program, It automatically relates to here. Ksb0218 (talk) 03:26, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Maniac (TV series)
Latest comment: 8 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
alphabetical order of languages in the search field dropdown menu on the home page
Latest comment: 8 days ago4 comments4 people in discussion
Hello,
Please explain why Russian is the second from the bottom of the list?
It should be right after Romanian if we order by latin transliteration.
For example: Shqip (Albanian) is after Afrikaans and it is OK.
Russian almost in the end of the list is not OK.
Most of the languages on www.wikipedia.org are sorted by English name (not shown) rather than by local name, hence Shqip appearing under A. That can't be coming from the same source as the mouseover tooltip, which is set to Russkiy. Русский may have a missing or incorrect English translation, which should be be easy to fix if you ask in the right place (Phabricator?). Certes (talk) 08:58, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 8 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
How to get each statatics of coord template transluded each by each, mean how many pages (articles) with the specific number by different planets/moon/dward plantes or other celebritals body, include mercury, venus, moon, mars, phobos, deimos, ceres, vesta, jupiter, ganymede, callisto, io, europa, mimas, enceladus, tethys, dione, rhea, titan, hyperion, iapetus, phoebe, miranda, ariel, umbriel, titania, oberon, triton, pluto, and charon.
Latest comment: 8 days ago4 comments3 people in discussion
The page for Jerry Alban Lamb has his date of death sourced to an Episcopal News Service article. The article since has been updated with the correct date of death, July 26, 2026, but although I did an update to the page originally with the correct date, but someone else edited in the wrong date, I’m not sure how to correct it. My source was his daughter Kate, who was with him at the time of death. LK Richardson (talk) 18:48, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Hello- we cannot accept your word on this, no matter how accurate it is. Information needs to be in a published reliable source that can be verified. We cannot verify a conversation that you had. The date of death needs to be written down somewhere that independent readers can theoretically locate, like a published obituary or death notice. 331dot (talk) 19:03, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
How to force tables to occupy the entire width of the page?
Latest comment: 8 days ago18 comments6 people in discussion
I'm trying to create a table containing lists with {{divcol}} inside, but whenever all cells have that template, instead of showing the lists arranged in multiple columns, the table remains only one column wide, because there is nothing "pushing" the table to be wider. Here is an example of what I mean. How do I force the table to be wider, thus allowing the divcol template to actually work? — Snoteleks (talk)20:33, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
I'm not good at this, but is it right that you have |{{divcol}} (with a pipe character at the beginning)? Doesn't this try to place the columns inside of one cell? TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 21:29, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
My experience is that this can be hard to get a satisfactory presentation because you don't know the display width yet have to give a list-column width in absolute units (such as em; but never px). Bazza7 (talk) 08:57, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
@Bazza 7 The thing is, I specifically want them in the same cell because on mobile I want it to be possible to only see one column, whereas on desktop I want to see several columns, depending on how wide the available window is. — Snoteleks (talk)10:10, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
@Snoteleks: You seem to be falling into the trap which many editors find: tables are for tabulated data, not for formatting presentation. You are trying to adjust and influence screen layout as if you're working with printed media on paper. The device or media – laptop, desktop, phone browser, phone app, paper – is irrelevant.
So my table above contains four pieces of information, arranged in a header row (the letters A and B) and a data row. There are two columns in each row; each cell in the data row has a single piece of data which is a list of nine items.
I've looked at your table: you seem to be using it to format, not to arrange data. your data is not really tabulated at all, its a set of nested lists, and this is what you should be using. My table might be better as lists as well; they can be columnised, which I've done:
A
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
B
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
There are other tools specifically for classifications which you can use to help. From your test page, Template:Automatic taxobox/doc may be a good direction to go.
(Incidentally, in your table you are attempting to use spaces (which are data) to influence layout. Don't.) Bazza7 (talk) 11:28, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
I appreciate you showing me columnised lists within non-columnised lists, I did not think that was possible. However you're making several assumptions. 1) Device is not irrelevant, as the entire point of me trying to make tables is due to how this format of tables is not mobile friendly and I am trying new styles that are mobile friendly after some complaints/suggestions from other editors. 2) The point of me using tables is indeed the formatting, as it allows the reader to collapse large chunks of text that they may not be interested in; something that is not possible in printed paper. Plenty of examples at Help:Table are meant to show advanced formatting, not just tabulated data. 3) I am already aware of taxoboxes, and are part of the taxobox task force; they are meant for different usages. 4) Again, yes I am using spaces to influence formatting. That is the point of all of this. I would never think a reader could be put off by an empty space on a cell that would otherwise be also empty. Thanks for the input but it's simply not what I asked for (see title of the topic). — Snoteleks (talk)12:31, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
@Snoteleks: Well ok. It wasn't clear what you asked for and you declined another another editor's request to do clarify. Your title ("How to force tables to occupy the entire width of the page?") is easily answered: add style="width=100%" to the starting markup of the wikitable. But that does not seem to be what you are asking for. So I had to second guess.
I disagree with most of what you have said.
1) Device should be irrelevant. Your content should be device independent; if you are old enough to remember the browser wars you will know the mess that can be got into when content has to be provided with regard to the device it will be read on.
@Bazza 7 Sorry, I guess I did not explain myself properly. I was indeed looking for the easy answer of using the style parameter to modify the width, I haven't found a detailed guide on the style parameter yet so I had no idea that was an option. That was exactly what I was asking for, I was simply detailing the reason why I wanted it. As for our disagreements, I think I misworded it. I wanted my content to be device independent, i.e., to be formatted in such a way that all devices can read it, both mobile and desktop, with columns adapting to the size of the screen. The issue I brought up was because I was not able to get more than 1 column in desktop. But I was able to thanks to the style="width" parameter. Thanks for offering me more options.
I also did not decline the other editor's request to clarify. Asking "what do you mean?" is not declining. I clarified as much as I was asked for, and Is there more? Eventually you may tell us what you really seek;) is a strange way to ask for clarification. What should there be more of? How is what I "really" seek different from what I'm telling you I'm seeking? What is "eventually" supposed to mean here, as if I'm hiding something? Even to such a strange response I did not decline anything, I just wanted to know what they meant. — Snoteleks (talk)09:29, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
I think I see the confusion. I think part of the point of what you're responding to is that you've begun by specifying the tools you want to use to do this job, and that your insistence on certain tools may be obscuring what the job actually is. It's possible that restating your original request in a way that never mentions any tools and only describes what you want to accomplish could make better answers available. TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 11:27, 29 July 2026 (UTC)
@Snoteleks: Please don't take this as a personal attack, although you probably will. You seem to have a pre-conceived conception of what _should_ be possible on Wikipedia, given certain tools, but it may be - sadly - essentially wrong. You seem to be unable to state your specific aims, although a number of editors have been attempting to guide you through the maze of data assembly and formatting options/templates/tables that is Wikipedia. It is essential to be able to state your aims clearly and without prevarication. Sometimes it may help to place a space at the beginning of a line, and then you can use text-type formatting to demonstrate what you are hoping to achieve, e.g.
One Two Three
One
Two
Three
There are a large number of formatting options available on WP: show us what you really want, and our knowledgable editors should be able to help you. Please understand that WP appears differently on desktop and mobile versions. This is because mobile is a relative newcomer, and it is an ongoing challenge to co-ordinate their appearance. We understand your frustration. MinorProphet (talk) 08:25, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
@MinorProphet Don't worry, I already found a satisfying solution. Not sure what made you assume all these things about me (that I would take anything as a personal attack, or that I was incapable of stating my objective, or that I don't understand that WP appears differently on each version, which is the whole point of this request), but all I wanted was a columnised list inside a table that keeps a variable number of columns depending on the width of the page, so one on mobile and more on desktop. I tried to get ahead of this miscommunication by giving more detail from the beginning, but like @TooManyFingers already pointed out, it obscured others from seeing what I was asking for; a self-fulfilling prophecy. Either way, my issue is now resolved thanks to changing the width parameter. I also found an easier solution with {{Collapse top}} and an indented list instead of a table.
I would just like to say, without any intention of offense, that a number of editors have been attempting to guide you through the maze of data assembly and formatting options/templates/tables only holds true for one response, which pointed me to changing the "style="width" parameter and to templates I could be interested in. All the external links to random blogs, and responses philosophizing about whether I should even want this in the first place or about the concepts of formatting vs data organizing, were unhelpful and out-of-scope. It was especially ironic how I was pointed to MOS:ACCESSIBILITY when my request specifically wants comply with MOS:RESOL. Not sure about other editors, but when I want something to "look" a certain way, it's because I want it to "look" better for all potential readers, not just me. There is nothing inherently more logical about preferring a large table with 7 columns full of text over a columnised list if it means mobile readers will struggle with the first option because of how stretched the text gets. I only started this thread because of input from other editors.
@Snoteleks: Many thanks for your thoughtful reply. I'm glad that you have found an answer to your problem. It's usual to thank the people who have guided you towards a solution (not me, obviously), and a {{resolved}} would make it obvious. Best, MinorProphet (talk) 19:38, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Using content from a retired editor's subpages
Latest comment: 7 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I found subpages written by User:Squidonius that contain source codes for bacterial genera that have not been made into articles. Example: User:Squidonius/userpage/microbes2. He has a header on his userpage that says he is retired. He has many subpages containing the source codes for articles that he never created. Can I take his content and create articles from his information? Best Regards, Barbara ✐✉18:42, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Yes. Any text added to Wikipedia is released under CC-BY-SA, so anybody may reuse or alter it for any purpose. If you are going to copy and paste it from the subpage, then follow the instructions in copying within Wikipedia. ColinFine (talk) 19:24, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
(I'm not an image expert, but I would hope that if you contributed an .svg image that includes the latest updates, so that in the future it can be edited without remaking the whole thing, you would become a legendary hero in the South Yorkshire Supertram community.):) TooManyFingers (he/him · talk) 06:46, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
The alternative is to create a new diagram as a railway diagram template. Such a diagram can handle different colours for different lines. Mjroots (talk) 11:32, 30 July 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 7 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi, I started a discussion a few days ago regarding a move for Talk:Interpolation. I am surprised to have received only one reply, despite having notified the relevant projects. Any further opinions? ~2026-42557-07 (talk) 10:58, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
Assuming this was you, just be patient. Request moves need to be open for at least 7 days before the request is concluded, so there's more time for people to respond. If it goes 7 days and there isn't clear consensus, it will be relisted, which bumps it to the top of the request move list for another 7 days. {{GearsDatapacks|talk|contribs|in solidarity}}11:10, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
2FA issue
Latest comment: 7 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi all. User:Nightfury here. I'm having trouble logging in using 2FA. Emails are sent with codes but persistently login is not allowing me in, saying access codes are incorrect. I did attempt to find a more appropriate place to put this, but unsure as to where to place it. Please forward as necessary. Thanks ~2026-42527-43 (talk) 11:04, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
my page got banned for hate, i dont know why. I dont know how to appeal nor how to get it back. I really just want to have it again. There was never hate in the page, i love my boy. yeah thats all. how do i get it back 🙏 Myrtledawg7 (talk) 16:33, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
still dont really know how this works, but can you tell me how my page was hateful? i didnt think there was any hate in there, i wouldnt do my boy like that Myrtledawg7 (talk) 16:42, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
I don't have access to the page you created, so I can't tell you how it was hateful. However, this is an online encyclopedia. It's not a web hosting service or a place where you can make joke pages for your friends, attack pages or not. If you want to show your friend a page, create it somewhere else. Wikipedia is not the place for this. In solidarity,🏳️🌈JohnLaurens333(They/them • Talk • Contribs)16:47, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
It seems clear that you are confused about what Wikipedia is. It's not a personal web host for you, or a place for you to make joke/attack/bullying pages about your classmates. If you want to contribute to the encyclopedia, you're welcome to do so. If not, I'd encourage you to find somewhere else for your project. (ESkog)(Talk)17:03, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
Yes, unfortunately for you, it is. There are countless other available Internet sites for you to do this on. Wikipedia is not one of them. Acting like this towards others here won’t do you any good either. Electricmemory (talk) In solidarity21:56, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
Ambition
Latest comment: 6 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Hi, do you think Ambition should be deleted, or does it have the potential to be expanded? Is the topic encyclopedic? In its current state, it reads more like a dictionary entry than an encyclopedia article. ~2026-42589-72 (talk) 15:21, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
Poplars
Latest comment: 6 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 6 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Hello, I am Stephen Stanley Little / Steve Little. Earlier I posted a request to create an article about my music career. I am having trouble navigating the site and finding my earlier posts. Please could you locate my request and the reply I received, and guide me simply on what to do next? Thank you very much. Shamu01 (talk) 11:36, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
Please scroll up to "Request to create article for Stephen Stanley Little / Steve Little". Are you using the app? 331dot (talk) 11:39, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
Request to create article for Stephen Stanley Little / Steve Little
Latest comment: 6 days ago8 comments6 people in discussion
Hello,
My name is Stephen Stanley Little, known professionally as Steve Little, born 14 February 1954.
I would like to request help creating a Wikipedia article for me, with these verified facts:
I worked as stage manager, personal assistant and roadie for Marc Bolan and T.Rex for three and a half years; this is documented on Wikipedia and confirmed by Christie’s auction records.
I was lyricist for the band Lips; our 1978 single Say Hello To My Girl was produced by Trevor Horn and released on GTO Records. I also recorded this song with my band The Kraze, later reissued by Cherry Red Records.
My full authorship of Say Hello To My Girl is officially registered with PRS for Music under my legal name, membership number 47757252.
All these details are supported by public archives and official industry documentation. Please let me know what further information is needed.
@Shamu01 The fundamental question is; why do you want a Wikipedia article about yourself? We are an encyclopedia. There's nothing particularly admirable or desirable about being featured here; and in fact very often there are good reasons to not want to be featured here. Athanelar (talk) 05:45, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
You may post a request at WP:Requested articles, but there is only a small chance that a volunteer will want to write the article, and many such requests therefore go unanswered.
Hello, I am Stephen Stanley Little / Steve Little. Earlier I posted a request to create an article for me. I find it hard to navigate the site — please could you find my request and send me a simple link I can just tap to open my draft page? Thank you. Shamu01 (talk) 07:01, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
Your post is immediately above. You may use the Article Wizard to create a draft, but please see the excellent advice given above. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people who have edited here over the years, very few have successfully created an article about themselves. Writing a new article is difficult even when not writing about yourself. It is not recommended as the first thing a new user does. 331dot (talk) 07:31, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
I would also suggest that being able to navigate the site is certainly the type of necessary competency one needs to acquire before even thinking about writing an article. @Shamu01 Please get yourself familiar with Wikipedia before you set yourself on the goal of having an article here, otherwise you're likely to just waste a lot of your own time and frustrate yourself in the process. Athanelar (talk) 08:08, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
Clive Rosendorff, MD, PhD
Latest comment: 6 days ago7 comments5 people in discussion
@Rosendo81:, you have just asked this question, and I've replied in detail on your user page. You need to read Your first article and format your Word document to comply with the xtensive guidance for new Wikipedia esitors there. Don't rush into this, it's quite difficult to get a biographical article accepted, and you will probably need to extensively modify your document to include in-line referencing, wikilinks and other wiki mark-up Jimfbleak - talk to me?15:22, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
@Rosendo81 I gather from your username that you are Mr. Rosendorff. If that is the case, please understand that like most people who have never edited Wikipedia, it is likely that you are completely misunderstanding the purpose of this encyclopedia and the type of thing we look for in an article. It's also likely you underestimate the extent to which having an article about yourself is not necessarily a good thing.
There is nothing special, desirable or admirable about having an article about yourself on Wikipedia. My suggestion is to abandon the effort. If you are notable enough to have an article here, someone else will eventually write it. Please also ignore any WP:SCAMs, i.e., offers you may now receive for people to write the article in exchange for payment. Athanelar (talk) 16:14, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
Latest comment: 5 days ago19 comments5 people in discussion
when is it going to be added into angela goethals's bio on this site that she's been married to russell soder since 2005?
Mere indignation
wikipedia,
when will you add into angela goethals's bio on this site that she's been married to russell soder since 2005 and they've had 2 daughters?
because that's important information you're leaving out at her bio,
and it just doesn't make sense that you have in the bio on this site of her co star from HOME ALONE hillary wolf that she's been married to chris saba since 2002 and they've had 2 sons.
because what i'm saying is indeed the TRUTH about angela goethals being married to russell soder and i can add in they've been married since september 24 in 2005. Robby mercier (talk) 00:34, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
because ALL of those also say that angela goethals is indeed married to russell soder and let me add in her bio at deepcinema.ai says they have been married since september 24 2005 and they have 2 daughters. Robby mercier (talk) 01:17, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
i am looking for places on the internet trying to get this site to BUDGE to add that important info into her bio and,
guess what,
even her bios at amazon.com and articlebio.com say it's the HONEST OF GOD TRUTH that she is INDEED married to russell soder and,
please don't tell me those 2 sites i just mentioned will be unacceptable also or i'm going to scream,
especially who her bio at amazon.com says it is the TRUTH that she has been married to russell soder since september 24 2005 and they have 2 daughters. Robby mercier (talk) 01:39, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
If you really want to add this information, you need to read the policies first. Those sites are also not acceptable for this. Maybe it is true that she has been married to Russell Soder since September 24th 2005, I believe you, but you need to find a reliable source. Please read WP:RS and WP:BLP.
It might help to think of it this way: what if she wasn't married to Russell Soder? It would not be good to add that information to the article if it cannot be verified.
i don't know what you want and expect every place on earth says they are married,
even her bio at primevideo.com talks about her marriage to him
even russell soder's bio at imdb.com talks about their marriage is still ongoing,
trying to get this site to BUDGE is really stressing me out because i really enjoy angela goethals's work in HOME ALONE and the refusal of this site to add that important information to her bio. Robby mercier (talk) 02:13, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
well then wikipedia I INVITE YOU to say angela goethals does facebook i found out that out when i had done facebook before i quit that site and,
i am sure she has it mentioned on her facebook page that she is married to him and you should have believed me instead of this 0 for 12 scenario.
because if apparently it was good enough for this site to say at hillary wolf's bio on this site about her ongoing marriage to chris saba because of posts both of them had done there.
so if i were you check out angela goethals's posts and info there and i am sure things will be talked about there that proves what i said is TRUE.
because this is absolutely RIDICULOUS i've told you about 12 different places that say IT IS TRUE ANGELA GOETHALS AND RUSSELL SODER ARE MARRIED AND THEY HAVE 2 DAUGHTERS.
while i am at it you're also failing to mention at hillary wolf's bio on this site that she been doing dog rescue volunteering in recent time so,
Robby mercier, back in November 2023 Orangemikewrote on your talk page Don't perform edits based on the IMdb or other unreliable sources. They will be reverted. IMdB was an unreliable source then and it's an unreliable source now. Don't cite it, and don't waste other people's time by encouraging them to cite it. -- Hoary (talk)WWU👍︎01:23, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
30K links pointing to same domain?
Latest comment: 5 days ago12 comments8 people in discussion
I simply cannot understand how Wikipedia allows this level of spam on its website. A few links to the same domain might be understandable, but over 30,000 links pointing to a single domain is beyond belief. It's not as if the website is genuine or contains real content. If you check it, nearly every post is fake and redirects users to the same page. I can provide further details upon request. MackJohnson79 (talk) 10:07, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Until we know what domain is involved (and I am intrigued to find out), it's difficult to say much, but bear in mind that we have 7.2+ million Articles (and links can also be in Article Talk pages and I suppose User pages and their Talk pages), so 30,000 links is equivalent to a good deal less than than one link per 200 articles or 400 pages. Link rot could be involved. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 12:15, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
Not yet, because I haven't yet summoned up the courage to try the suggested possible remedies in case everything goes even further wrong: I'll report once I have. In the meantime I'm using and slowly configuring Opera, and contemplating buying a complete new IT setup, from soup to nuts. Thanks for asking. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.105} ~2026-41275-62 (talk) 00:39, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
Best of luck. Whatever, I would try to avoid Win 11 like the plague. It sounds considerably worse than Vista. If you can coax Opera to work for you, fine. It should even be possible to import FF settings... MinorProphet (talk) 01:18, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
All the useful-looking links I tried redirect to the generic /news page: a list of irrelevant feature articles. We should probably mark the citations with |url-status=usurped, adding a link to an archive site where available and not already present. This looks like a job for WP:URLREQ. Certes (talk) 13:06, 27 July 2026 (UTC)
I didn't see any gambling ads. Although unhelpful, I think it's a semi-good-faith redirect. It's rather like when I visit a reputable news site trying to check a reference which has been deleted or moved and instead it shows me today's headlines, effectively making their home page double up as a 404 page. Certes (talk) 08:41, 28 July 2026 (UTC)
New editor was not treated well
Latest comment: 5 days ago7 comments6 people in discussion
At User talk:Misty1967, the editor said they worked for the subject of the article.
They were then repeatedly asked if they had a COI. It was obvious that they had a COI, so I am not sure why they kept being asked.
Then they were blocked.
No one explained ANYTHING to them. I think this was very rude by the Wikipedia community. We could have done much better. Can we fix it? David10244 (talk) 02:59, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
{{ec}} They are only blocked from the one specific article with which they have a COI. It's based on an ANI discussion, so there is definitely nothing we can do here. DMacks (talk) 03:14, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
They participated in the discussion and were given a pointer to WP:PAID and information about declaring their COI, which they apparently ignored. Their block notification tells them what to do. How much more hand-holding is required? Bazza7 (talk) 09:23, 31 July 2026 (UTC)
This is par for the course when well-intentioned and naive conflicted editors try to make changes or ask for help.
Of course people should not have free reign to whitewash articles, or make them promotional, but we too often throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Thanks for the pointers, and yes, I failed to post some useful info that I could have; thanks @Hydronium Hydroxide for doing that. And yes, the baby etc. We (including myself here) were not as helpful or as kind as we could have been. David10244 (talk) 11:58, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
2 page ppt about Walt Disney
Latest comment: 5 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Bout how he started business what losses he went through and how did he overcome it and an end is there beginning is there im looking for major setbacks where he overcame through losses and everything make it a but fun ~2026-42697-77 (talk) 08:55, 1 August 2026 (UTC)
@~2026-42697-77 Do you want PowerPoint slides about Walt? If that's what you're asking, you'll have to create them yourself. The volunteers here will very likely not take such assignments. David10244 (talk) 12:05, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
Arabic CG Astroganger sequel
Latest comment: 5 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
A question for finding the Arabic CG Astroganger sequel asked by a blocked user on Teahouse interests me
They said this information is on the Japanese Wikipedia article for Astroganger and multiple Japanese websites. However, this user coundl’t find the Arabic CG Astroganger sequel series. When asked whatever or not this information is vandalism done in the Japanese Wikipedia, they said that this information is on multiple Japanese websites. Astroganger was very popular in Arabic-speaking world, and was also kind of popular in Spain and Italy. While i’m not from either of these countries, i do know Astroganger and i am interested about finding the Astroganger sequel. So this blocked user isn’t the only one talking about the Astroganger sequel in the Teahouse. I would like if we could find the Astroganger sequel. I’m wondering if there are other overseas adaptations/sequels of japanese anime/media? I have also posted it on the Teahouse and on the Entertainment reference desk. ~2026-42678-73 (talk) 11:24, 2 August 2026 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.